


Tales of Meeting Percabeth

by Author_Incognito



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, F/M, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Humor, POV Outsider, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 14:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 23,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4352432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Author_Incognito/pseuds/Author_Incognito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a bunch of one-shots on what would happen when other characters meet Percabeth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Maria pushed her glasses up on her face and brushed her wavy black hair behind her ear as she struggled to come up of things to write in an essay paper that was due in the next morning. She felt relief when the sentences formed in her mind, and quickly jotted it down on to the paper. Unfortunately this also meant that she had to think of some more things to accomodate for the 1,000 word essay.

"You do realize that if you didn't procrastinate as much, you would probably be relaxing instead of rushing about finishing a homework assignment that was assigned a week ago." Maria heard her roommate Annabeth say from across the room.

Maria rolled her eyes as she gazed down at her paper. "Not all of us are born freaking genius's Annabeth." She said jokingly toward her roommate.

"It has nothing to do with being a genius. It's to do with making sure you have your priorities straight." Annabeth said.

Sadly, this little one-minute exchange did nothing in giving Maria any ideas about what she was going to put on her paper. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to finish it later. I can't focus on it right now." Maria said as she got up from the desk and made her way over to her bed, lying down and stretching out her limbs. Almost instantly Maria could feel her eyelids threatening to close on her. Maybe she could close her eyes for just a few seconds...

PING!

The sound of something sounding like a rock banged against the window. Looking over at Annabeth, Maria saw that her friend was deeply engrossed in a book, and didn't appear to have heard the noise at all. Annoyed, Maria jumped out of her bed and raced to the window, opening it instantly. Something that she would later come to regret as the small rock that was intended to hit the window instead hit her square in the forehead.

"Ow! God dammit!" Maria screeched in pain, moving back from the window, barely noticing Annabeth gasping and getting up from her own bed and moving towards the window.

"Percy! What was that for?" Annabeth hissed as she looked down onto the mowed lawn of the boarding school below.

A male voice drifted up from the ground not long afterward. "Oh, Gods, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt her?"

Annabeth straightened up from the window and turned around to face Maria, who was still massaging her forehead.

"Are you okay?" She asked kindly, yet briskly at the same time.

Maria nodded. "Yeah, I'm Okay." She said to assure her friend. "Gonna leave one hell of a bruise in the morning though." She muttered as Annabeth turned back around to the window, which she immediately stepped back from as a hand appeared in the window sill.

Soon after a boy of about seventeen years of age with dark hair and tan skin crawled into their dorm room. He stood up and gazed around the room. When he noticed Maria, he gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Maria muttered a quick, "Oh, that's all right," before quickly hiding her face as she felt herself begin to blush. Unfortunately- or perhaps fortunately- he didn't seem to notice her embarrassment, instead holding out his hand in greeting. "Hi, I'm Percy. Annabeth's boyfriend."

Maria quickly gave his hand a shake. "Maria. Annabeth's friend and roommate." Speaking of Annabeth . . .

Maria turned towards her friend, who was watching the exchange in something similar to amusement.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend." Maria said, slightly raising an eyebrow.

Annabeth shrugged. "It never came up."

From beside her, Maria heard a gasp. "What! You mean you didn't tell her anything about me. I feel so hurt right now." Sneaking a glance Percy, Maria had to suppress a laugh at his attempt at a pouty face.

Annabeth, however, didn't seem able to. "Shut up, Seaweed Brain."

Percy did a soldier like gesture with his hand. "Sir, yes, sir. Er, I mean ma'am."

Turning back towards Annabeth, Maria saw her friend give a little chuckle. "Your an idiot, you know that right?" Annabeth jokingly told him.

Percy grinned. "I know. You ready for our date?"

"Yes, but you could have picked me up at the front of the building like a normal person."

"Well, I'm not a normal person."

Maria, who had been watching this exchange happily, suddenly crashed back down to Earth. " Whoa, wait. Your going out? But it's after curfew." Maria said, nervously glancing at the clock on her bedside table. Not that Maria had any regard to the rules by herself, she just didn't want to see Annabeth - who was one of the nicest people she knew- get into trouble.

"Cover for me?" Annabeth asked, smiling nervously.

Smiling, Maria couldn't help but nod her head.

Percy gave a little whoop of excitement and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to the still open window.

"Percy, What are you do-" However Annabeth's sentence came short as Percy jumped out of the window with he

Maria's eyes widened as she raced toward the window, but instantly felt relief as she saw Annabeth safely on her feet, playfully shoving her boyfriend beside of her. She giggled a little bit as she saw Percy grabbed Annabeth and gave her a short, sweet kiss, before taking her hand and running across the grounds of the boarding school.

Still smiling, Maria turned and made her way over to her desk, now intent on finishing her homework.

It was only when she had finished it that a thought occurred to her. Seaweed Brain, she thought. Must be an old nickname or something.


	2. Chapter 2

"Freedom!" Jared's friend Ian screamed at the top of his lungs as he raced out of the school building, coming to a stop beside a tree and letting himself fall down onto the ground. Rolling his eyes, Jared walked towards him, along with his other two friends, Kyle and Percy.

Letting his backpack fall off his shoulder onto the ground, Jared sat himself beside of Ian, who had by now sat up. Kyle and Percy had caught up to them, but had apparently opted to not sit down, as they were both leaning against the trunk of the tree.

"Ahh, man. Two whole days of doing nothing but eating and sleeping." Ian said, grinning.

"Until Monday comes around again." Kyle pointed out, which was accompanied by a groan from Ian.

"We'll cross that road when we get there. But right now, I am not doing a thing." Ian said, then he paused. "Wait, scratch that. I am going to do something. I am going to have to make you stop thinking so negatively. I mean, the weekends just started and already your already fretting about Monday." Ian threw back his head and laughed.

Kyle bit his lip. "I wasn't thinking negatively. I was just stating an obvious face."

Ian waved his hand aside. "Oh, I know. I'm just messing with you."

Suddenly, a certain stream of curses issued from where Kyle and Percy were standing by the tree. Jared looked over and saw that Percy was down on the ground, searching for something in his backpack.

Jared watched as Percy stood up, slowly shaking his head. "I'll be right back guys. I forgot something in my locker." Then he turned around and ran back inside the school building.

They sat in silence for a few minutes after that. Ian had ended up playing around on his cellphone, Kyle had taken some science-fiction novel out of his backpack, and Jared picked at absent-mindedly at his shoelaces.

Looking up from his shoes, Jared saw a sleek, silvery-gray car approaching them from the street a few feet away. Jared watched as the car parked on the side of the road. Someone opened the door from the inside, and out stepped a girl with long curly blonde hair.

The girl turned around, and Jared was brought head-on with her beauty. She was absolutely gorgeous and beautiful and pretty and- he stopped himself. He looked back down again at his shoes- the chances of a girl that good-looking approaching them, 0 to none.

However, a shadow soon fell over him, and Jared looked up and saw the girl standing not two feet from him. Jared felt butterflies building in his stomach, and averted his eyes away from the girl, silently cursing himself as he felt himself blush, and also glad that he wasn't like Kyle, who had looked up from his book and was now mumbling incoherently as he stared at the girl.

Ian, however, sat straight up, and opened him mouth to speak, but Jared beat him to it. Despite how much Ian tried to be the "cool" one of their group, he was a terrible flirter. And, personally, Jared didn't want to scare her off too quick.

"Hello. Are you looking for something? I could help you." Jared said, hearing a slight stutter in his words as he said them.

The girl smiled. "Oh, there's no need. I already found it." The girl said looking at something behind them. They turned around and saw Percy walking towards them, carrying a notebook in the crook of his right arm.

"Sorry about that guys. Mr. Harold stopped to talk about my English- Annabeth!" Percy yelled, dropping his books and running straight towards the girl, wrapping her in his arms and swinging her around.

"Hey!" The girl- who was apparently name Annabeth- said in surprise. "Put me down!"

Percy complied to her wished and set her back down onto the ground. She swayed slightly, but soon regained her footing.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Annabeth asked accusingly.

"Forget? I didn't forget anything. Uh, what exactly is it that I'm forgetting." Percy said, picking up his backpack from beside the tree.

"We were supposed to go this afternoon and pick up something for your mom. You know, for her birthday." Annabeth said.

"Oh, right, I knew that!" Percy said, rubbing the back of his head.

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, really? Then why did you look so surprised to see me? After all, we did arrange this entire thing. I would pick you up from school, and we would go get your mom a birthday present."

"Oh, right, uh, well. Oh, Uh, these are my friends from school." Percy said, in a very poor attempt to change the subject. Pointing to each of them in turn, Percy introduced them. "That's Ian," Ian waved goofily at Annabeth, apparently all thoughts of flirting gone from his head, "Kyle," who blushed even further and buried his head back into his book, "And Jared." Jared nodded his head in acknowledgement, "And guys, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth."

Ian raised his eyebrows. "Dang, you got a girlfriend before me? Well, that's a bummer." Ian said, laughing. Then, saying as an afterthought. "How long have you two been together."

"A little over a year." Percy said, smiling down at her.

"Well, we'd better get going. It was nice meeting you." Annabeth said, taking Percy's hand and walking away.

Silence followed after that, until, finally, Kyle peered up from his book, glasses slipping down the length of his nose. "Well, that was unexpected."

Personally, Jared felt as if that summed up the whole event.


	3. Chapter 3

Sophia stared around her in amazement as a boy called Malcolm - who was apparently her brother - showed her the camp. For the first time in her life, Sophia wished that she had been born with more sets of eyes, to take in all that she was seeing. To the left of her, campers were playing volleyball with satyrs. To the right, other campers were creating a sculpture of some sort. Above her campers rode on flying creatures that - if she remembered correctly from reading about Greek Mythology - were pegasi. It was all so amazing.

She was so enthralled by this whole new world that she was seeing that she didn't realize that they were standing in front of a gray cabin with an owl carving at the top. "And this," Malcolm said, opening the door, "Is the Athena Cabin."

The Athena Cabin looked more like a small library that an actual cabin on the inside. Beds were crammed into corners and the sides of the room, while the rest of the room was occupied by bookshelf after bookshelf and even a Smart board at the opposite end of the room. There were only two other people in the room, and they were now passionately kissing on one of the beds.

Malcolm cleared his throat, and a girl with long, curly blonde hair pulled away from the dark-haired boy that she had been kissing. She tried in vain to straighten her hair and clothes. She stood up and walked over to Sophia, quickly followed by the dark-haired boy.

After a quick handshake with her, the girl introduced herself. "Welcome to the Athena Cabin. My name is Annabeth Chase. I am the head counselor, and if you have any questions- any at all - feel free to ask me."

Sophia nodded her head, and, with one last parting smile, Annabeth walked out the door.

Sophia blinked, shocked by that brief meeting. "Well, that was . . ."

"Disappointing?" Malcolm filled in for her.

Sophia shrugged, looking down. "Just a little."

Feeling a hand come down on her should, Sophia looked up to see Malcolm staring down at her. "Don't worry about it. She'll properly introduce you to the Athena Cabin later. Percy was just distracting her right now."

"Percy?" Sophia asked.

"The boy who was in here earlier. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. He's Annabeth's boyfriend."

Sophia pondered over this for a short while. Poseidon and Athena, Poseidon and Athena. There was something about them in Greek Mythology . . . Then she remembered- Poseidon and Athena had a rivalry of sorts and didn't really get along.

Sophia started out slowly. "He's the son of Poseidon."

"Yeah." Malcolm said, looking at her questioningly.

"Then why is she dating him?" Sophia asked.

Malcom cocked his head and removed his hand from her shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he's the son of Poseidon, and she's the daughter of Athena, so shouldn't they hate each other?" Sophia said.

She waited while Malcolm thought about what she had just said. After a short while, he answered. "Your talking about the rivalry between Poseidon and Athena."

Sophia nodded her head.

"Right, well, the thing you have to understand about demigods is usually we don't let our parent's relationships effect our own."

"So . . . they've never hated each other?" Sophia asked.

Malcolm snorted. "They did when they first met."

"Oh, what happened?"

Malcolm shrugged his shoulders. "Things happened over the years, and they fell in love."

"Why?" Sophia questioned.

"Er, that really isn't my forte. If you want to know more about that stuff, you should go ask someone from the Aphrodite Cabin."

Sophia shook her head, her interest in the love life of her head counselor soon diminishing as she brought her attention to the rest of the room. "No thanks. I'd rather get acquainted with some of those books.


	4. Chapter 4

The mailman had gotten it wrong. Again, Amanda thought as she stared down at the few envelopes that she had gotten in her mailbox. The problem? It was addressed to a Mrs. Sally Blofis and not a Mrs. Amanda Fuller. Clutching the mail tightly in her hand, Amanda walked over to the elevator of the apartment, intending to deliver the mail to the rightful owner.

This had been the third time that the wrong mail had been delivered to her. It was all all right the first time. . . Well, everyone made mistakes sometimes, right? Then the second time happen. . . she got a little frustrated. The third time? Well, this was most unacceptable.

For God's sake just fire him all ready, Amanda thought as the elevator gave a small ding and opened up to the second-floor landing.

Stepping out onto the carpeted hallway, Amanda made her way to the correct place for the mail.

Amanda knocked on the door. She examined her fingernails as she waited for the inhabitant to open the door.

After a few seconds, the door opened, and revealed a rather kind looking woman with semi-long brown hair. Smiling, Sally said, "Hello. Can I help you?"

Amanda handed her the envelopes. "Our mail got switched."

Sally opened her mouth in slight shock and embarrassment. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Quickly, she took the mail from Amanda's hands.

"It's all right. It's not like it was your fault." Amanda reassured her.

"Still. . ." Sally said.

Suddenly, Sally glanced behind her.

"I have some coffee brewing. It should be done soon. Do you want some?" Sally asked, turning her head back around to Amanda.

"I would love some, thank you."

Sally smiled and walked away to the kitchen, with Amanda following her soon after.

It really is a nice place, Amanda thought as she walked through the living room, which was adorned with pictures and other various items.

They had almost reached the kitchen when Amanda saw it. An open door, leading to a bedroom. From what Amanda could guess, the bedroom belonged to a teenager, what with the various clothes and food wrappings that were strewn about the floor. But that wasn't what had drawn Amanda's attention to the room. It was the teen couple lying in the bed, arms wrapped tightly around each other as if they were afraid that if they let go, then the other would disappear, the blankets covering them up to their chins.

Amanda gasped as she reached out to Sally, just barely managing to grab her by the arm, who had just stepped into the kitchen. Sally gave a small gasp before stumbling slightly, but managed to regain her balance before she could fall.

Sally turned around, eyebrows slightly raised in confusion. "What?" She asked.

Slowly and shakily, Amanda pointed towards the couple. "Who is that?" Amanda asked, much harsher than she had intended to be.

As she watched Sally frown slightly as she followed Amanda's gaze, Amanda couldn't help but be thoroughly shocked by her fellow tenant. How could she have allowed something like this to happen? They couldn't have been more than eighteen years old. Personally, Amanda didn't have any kids of her own, but whenever she was at certain family gatherings, she always made sure to keep the teenaged couples within her sight.

"Oh, that's just my son, Percy, and his girlfriend, Annabeth." Sally said.

"They are sleeping in a bed together." Amanda pointed out to her.

Sally only shrugged. "Yes, they are." Amanda noticed that Sally failed to see- or perhaps acknowledge- the implications of what Amanda had said.

Amanda sighed. "Sally, I'm pretty sure that you and I both know how teenagers minds work, and I think you and I both know what could happen since your are allowing this type of behavior in your own home."

"They didn't do anything!" Sally protested, face flushed red from either embarrassment or anger, Amanda couldn't tell.

Amanda raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Honest!" Sally exclaimed.

"Then how do you explain the situation right in front of your eyes?" Amanda questioned.

Sally stared down at her feet before answering "They have nightmares." She finally said, albeit hesitantly.

"So? Everyone has nightmares from time to time. It is part of the natural order in which we call life." Amanda said.

"They're not like the ordinary nightmares that you and I have. They wake up screaming in the middle of the night."

"Still, is that a reason for them to sleep together?" Amanda asked, feeling as though she had won the battle.

Sally opened her mouth to speak, but was cutoff by another voice.

"Yes."

Blinking in surprise, Amanda looked over to the bedroom, where she now saw that Percy was now awake. He was sitting up, casually stroking his girlfriend's hair, looking at them with eyes that made Amanda feel as though they had seen too many things in just a short period of time. Amanda noticed that- thankfully- he had a shirt on.

"We went through a lot. And we went through it together. If I don't sleep with her, I do wake up screaming. Every. Single. Night. But if I'm with her. . . well, I still have nightmares, but it's like I know that she's right here beside me, and I don't wake up screaming, because I know that she is all right." Percy said.

Amanda shook her head in confusion. "I- I'm sorry. I don't understand."

"No, you'll never understand." Percy said bitterly, before shaking his head. "I'm sorry. It's not your fault that we had to go through. . ." Percy trailed off, and Amanda was shocked to notice that he was close to tears.

Feeling slightly ashamed, Amanda turned back to Sally, who was staring in worry at her son. "Er, would another time be all right?"

It took her a few seconds to actually acknowledge what Amanda had said. "What? Oh, yes, another time would be all right." She said absent-mindedly before going towards the bedroom.

Amanda turned around and walked out of the apartment, only glancing back once to see Sally shaking Percy's girlfriend- Annabeth, she recalled- awake


	5. Chapter 5

"So let me get this straight." Tyler asked his friend Ian one day at school during study hall. "Percy has a girlfriend? Like, a legitimate girlfriend."

"Yep." Ian said whilst scrolling through the text messages on his phone. "And she is H-O-T."

"Really?" Tyler asked incredulously.

Ian looked up from his phone, eyebrows raised. "Would I ever lie to you?"

"Actually, yes. Many, many times.

"Bullshit. Name one time that I have ever lied to you." Ian said.

"First day we ever met, in elementary school. You said that it was a requirement for friends to do each others homework when they were to tired to do it." Tyler said.

Ian just shrugged his shoulders. "What? I was a really tired kid back then!"

"Tired enough to not do your homework for an entire month?" Tyler said.

Ian shrugged again, returning his attention back to his phone. "You seemed to enjoy doing it, so I just let you."

Tyler rolled his eyes. "Yes, because everyone enjoys doing homework. 

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the start of another period. Grabbing his backpack off the floor, Tyler headed out the door of the classroom, and out into the hallways of the school. He weaved his way through the hundreds of people making their way to their lockers and various classes, all the while being closely followed by Ian.

"Well it is true." Ian told him as soon as he caught up with him. "He does have a girlfriend."

"Then why didn't he mention her before?" Tyler asked as he reached his locker.

"Don't know." Ian said, leaning against the locker beside of Tyler's.

"Of course you don't." Tyler said under his breath as he pulled out his English textbook and notebook.

Slamming his locker door shut, Tyler left Ian and started to make his way toward his second-period class.

As he was walking Tyler yawned, closing his eyes for just a few seconds. Unfortunately, those few seconds caused him to run into a girl. A very, very pretty girl.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Here, let me help you with that." Tyler said as he noticed the dropped notebook on the floor. Bending over, he picked it up handed it to her.

The girl nodded her head at him slightly. "Thank you." She started to move past him, but Tyler stopped her before she could do so.

"Hi, my name is Tyler Kings. I don't think I've ever seen you around before. Are you new here? If you are, then I could show you around." Tyler said.

"My name is Annabeth Chase. And, no, I am not new here. I was just going to give my boyfriend his notebook that he forgot at my dorm room last night."

"Oh." Tyler said numbly. Any hope of asking this girl vanished as quickly as it appeared.

He was just about to leave when he heard a familiar voice rising above all of the others.

"Annabeth! Oh, thank the Gods. You are such a life saver!" Tyler turned around and saw his friend Percy walk over towards them.

Tyler moved out of the way as Percy leaned down and kissed Annabeth softly.

Annabeth was the first to pull away. Silently, she handed over the textbook. "Next time you are over at my school, don't forget your stuff. Especially when you have notes for a chapter test the next day."

Percy smiled at her. "Sorry. Won't happen again."

"Don't lie. We both know that it will more than likely happen again." Annabeth said, giving a small laugh as Percy made his best I-am-offended face. Which, Tyler knew, wasn't that good.

Feeling somewhat awkward, Tyler cleared his throat loudly.

It had an almost immediate effect. Percy turned away to look at him, almost as if he had just realized that Tyler had been standing there the whole time.

"Oh, hey, Tyler. Um, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth. Annabeth-" Percy said, before being interrupted by Tyler.

"We've already introduced ourselves." Tyler said.

"Oh." Percy said.

A full minute passed by, filled with awkward silence, before the warning bell rang, which Tyler was silently thankful for

"Well, see you later." Tyler said, walking away from the happy couple, who were now kissing passionately in the middle of the school hallway, seemingly without a care in the world.


	6. Chapter 6

Emily took a deep breath as she steeled herself in front of the apartment door. She was being so stupid. It wasn't like she was about to face some life-threatening challenge. She was only going to tutor a boy from her school. Who just so happened to be really, really handsome. Yeah, no big deal. Easy as pie. A walk in the park. A . . . she was so screwed.

Adjusting the textbooks she held in her hands, Emily forced a smile once more and knocked on the door. She stood up straighter as she heard footsteps approach the door.

As the door opened Emily stepped back, nearly tripping over her feet in the process, although thankfully she managed to keep herself up.

Looking back up from her feet, Emily's smile faltered as she saw the expression of the guy she was supposed to tutor.

"Oh, uh, hey, Emily. Uh, this isn't really a good time right now. Could you come back later?" Percy said, looking at her with apologetic eyes.

A mixture of relief and frustration coursed through her. Relief because she had been fretting over this for the past twenty-four hours. Frustration, because she had been mentally planning how she was going to tutor him.

"Oh." Emily said, blinking slowly. "Um, I guess that's all right. So, I'll just- " She was interrupted by the sound of retching echoing throughout the apartment building.

Before she could ask what was wrong, Percy turned away from her and ran away.

Cautiously, Emily stepped into the apartment. Walking a little ways into the apartment, Emily stopped when she saw a pretty blonde girl heaving into the toilet with Percy holding her hair back, in the bathroom with the door halfway open.

Feeling slightly embarrassed on intruding on a private moment, Emily stepped back and tried to study a picture of a young Percy and his mother on the wall while all the while trying to ignore the sounds coming from the bathroom.

Eventually, she heard the sound of a toilet flushing and sounds of protest coming from what she presumed to be the girl in the bathroom. She barely contained a smile as she saw Percy walk in holding the girl bridal-style against his chest.

"For the Gods's sake Percy. I'm sick, not dying." The girl said, although Emily had a feeling that deep down, the girl was really glad on how her -Friend? Boyfriend?- was treating her.

Percy gently laid her onto the couch, and within seconds, she was fast asleep.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Emily asked before she could stop herself. After all, it was no business of hers getting into the affairs of people's love lives.

Percy- who had been watching the girl with an expression that Emily only saw when the two really loved each other- looked up in surprise, as if he were just now noticing that she was still there.

"Yeah. Her name is Annabeth. She's amazing." Percy said, gazing back down at his girlfriend in complete adoration.

Emily smiled, silently wishing that she could get a boyfriend that would look at her like that.

"So, do you want to reschedule this for the same time tomorrow?" Emily asked, regretting the fact that she had to distract him from his girlfriend.

"What? Oh, um, the day after tomorrow actually. Because there is a fair chance I might be sick myself tomorrow, what with me looking after her. Completely worth it, though." Percy said, leaning down to plant a soft kiss on Annabeth's forehead.

Emily smiled and nodded. "Okay. See you later."

"See you later." Percy responded just before Emily walked out the door.

A few minutes later, Emily made sure she was out of earshot of anyone hearing her saying, "Awwwww," over what she had just seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you're wondering, Paul was at a parent-teacher conference and Sally was at the store picking up some medicine for Annabeth.


	7. Chapter 7

It was the screaming that awoke him. A terrible, blood-curdling scream that seemed to settle deep within his bones. Rubbing his eyes groggily, Brian lay there on his bed for a moment or two more before the screaming started again.

Heart racing, Brian scrambled out of bed and raced towards the door, nearly stubbing his toe on some unseen object as he raced out of the bedroom.

When he reached the door, Brain wrenched it open. Outside, he saw that many of the inhabitants of that floor of the apartment building standing in a semi-circle around a door. A moment or two later, a scream came yet again, somewhere within that apartment.

Brian's eyes widened. That was the apartment of one of his friends, Paul Blofis, and his family. Brian worked with Paul at the same high school. However, they didn't see each other much, as Paul worked in the Language Arts department and he was a Gym teacher. Still, Paul had helped him find a new place to live after he separated from his wife of ten years, which had led to the two of them being really good friends.

Walking out onto the landing, Brian managed to push himself through the people that had crowded around the door. Feeling their ever worrying faces that didn't know exactly what to do on him, Brian knocked on the door.

Holding his breath in anticipation, Brian waited until he heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Releasing a huge breath as the door opened slightly and the face of his friend peered out. Brian watched as Paul blinked in surprise at all of the people that were crowded around his door.

"Don't worry. Everything is fine. You can all go back to bed. I'm sorry that we woke you all up." Paul said, moving to close the door, however, Brian stuck his foot in the doorway before he could do so.

"Paul," Brian said cautiously, "What's going on?"

Paul hesitated, and Brian could tell that he was worried about something. "Nothing. My step-son's just having a nightmare."

Brian stared at him in disbelief. A nightmare that was bad enough to cause the person to scream in the middle of the night?

"Really!" Paul cried, exasperated and glancing anxiously behind him. "That's what's going on."

The people behind Brian seemed to think this was reassuring enough to go back to their own apartments. Brian couldn't blame them. It was very late in the night -Early in the morning?- and all of them looked dead on their feet. It seemed that even the slightest reassurance from Paul had caused them to go back to bed.

"Paul? Is there anything I could do?" Brain asked.

"I don't think you can do anything for this." Paul said, and Brian saw the tiredness and the worry that filled Paul's eyes.

"At least let me come in until everything is alright." Brian said. After all, Paul had helped him in the past- he might as well try to do something in repayment.

"Alright. You can come in." Paul said.

Opening the door wider to allow Brian to slip his bulky frame through the door, Paul turned around as his wife- Sally, Brian recalled- came from around the corner and into the small hallway. "I just woke him up. He's Iri- I mean he's calling Annabeth right now." Sally said. Brian didn't fail to notice the way she had prevented herself from saying something, but he pushed it to the back of his mind.

"Hello, Sally." He greeted, giving a small nod of his head.

Sally smiled. "Hello, Brian. I'm so sorry that we woke you."

Brian smiled in what he hoped to be a reassuring manner at her. "Don't worry about it. No harm done."

"Would you like something to drink." Sally asked. "Coffee, hot chocolate."

"Hot chocolate would be nice." Brian admitted. "Thank you."

Sally smiled at him yet again and made to turn around and walk away, Paul and Brian following close behind her.

However, Brian stopped when he heard some sound coming out of a closed bedroom door.

"- if it doesn't, Annabeth? What if we won't be able to get over it? It's been over a month, and we're still having nightmares." Brian had to strain his ears to hear the sound of a teenage boy's voice coming through the door.

Another voice -this one a female adolescent- heaved a huge sigh before saying, "Percy, we went through a traumatic experience, so it will be a while before we can go about how we did before all of this happened. This past summer wasn't at all like our previous one- we can't just expect it to all go away in just a few weeks. It will take a while."

"But how long? How long will it be before we get better?" Percy said, and Brian felt his heart clench at the sound of utter defeat in his voice.

"I don't know." Annabeth said.

"I miss you." Percy said, and Brian was not surprised to hear the sound of sobbing.

"Percy, calm down! I'll come over in about a day, alright? I would come right now, but I don't think my dad would appreciate me waking him up in the middle of the night."

It takes a few more moments before Percy has finally calmed down enough to answer her. "Okay. I Lov-"

At that moment, Brian was brought back to his senses as he heard his name being called from somewhere in the kitchen.

Feeling slightly shocked at what he had just heard, Brian made his way into the kitchen, where he poured some of the hot liquid from the kettle into the cup.

 

A couple of days later, Brian doesn't fail to notice when a young, blonde teenage girl with startling grey eyes moves into the Jackson apartment. He also doesn't fail to notice that after she moves in, no screaming is heard in the middle of the night anymore.


	8. Chapter 8

Today is the day, Eric thought as he leaned his head against the side of the school transit bus window. Today was the day that he was finally going to ask her out on a date. The "her" in question being Annabeth Chase, the smartest and most beautiful person alive, in his own opinion.

Whenever Annabeth had first moved to New York from California, Eric had regrettably made the assumption that she was the stereotypical dumb blonde. Her appearance certainly fit the image. Blonde hair, tan skin, extraordinarily beautiful, and an athletic-type body. The only thing that really seemed out of place were her grey eyes, which constantly seemed to be sizing you up, determining the best way to take you down in a fight.

Of course, she proved him wrong on his assumptions about her when she joined the school academic team that he was on and quickly became one of the top players. Feeling guilty about the way he had judged her before he got to know her, Eric had decided to attempt to become her friend.

Eventually, he had succeeded, and she had turned out to be one of the best friends that he had. And now he was going to take that friendship to the next level.

He had been planning this day for weeks. First, he would ask to carry her books in the halls in between classes. Second, he would compliment her about her appearance. And last of all, when they were all so excited that they had won this academic competition, he would finally ask her out on a date. He had already succeeded in the first two parts of his plan, and now he was beginning to initiate the third and final part of his plan.

Suppressing a smile as he saw the bus turn to pull into the parking lot of the school that they would be up against, Eric stood up along with the rest of the members of the team as the bus pulled to a stop in front of the building.

Following the rest of his fellow team members as they rushed in what they surely hoped to be a dignified manner off the bus, Eric, for the first time that day, began to worry about his plan in asking Annabeth out. What if they didn't win, and her disappointment in not winning clouded her decision when he asked her out and she said no?

Eric shook his head to get rid of any negative thoughts. Of course they were going to win, Eric thought as he walked towards the main doors of the building, we have some of the most intelligent high school students in all of New York amongst us. It would be an insult to smart people everywhere if they lost this match. Feeling slightly more confident about the afternoon ahead, Eric strode through the doors of the school, entering a fairly large main lobby of the building.

Over by the gym doors stood a group of people in purple and green uniforms. The uniforms had something written on the chest of the shirts, but Eric couldn't make out what they said. He assumed that these were the people that they were supposed to play against.

Eric watched the students as they stepped back as the gym doors opened, allowing a middle-aged man with thinning hair and a wispy moustache to step outside into the main lobby of the building. Looking briefly over to where Eric's academic team stood, the man said, "Everything is ready. You may go in and take your places." And as abruptly as he came, he was gone once again inside the gym.

At this, the rival students began to make a strict, single-file line as they made their way inside the gym. Apparently they hadn't practiced that move very often, as a lot of them stumbled on their feet as they tried to keep pace with the person in front of them. Rolling his eyes at the other group's failed attempt at intimidation, Eric followed his teammates as they walked into the gym.

In the gym, three tables were set up. Two of which were set facing each other a few feet apart near the middle of the gym floor, with microphones and bright red buzzers set at various intervals. Sitting a few feet beside of them was the third table, this one occupied by judges with various sheets of paper in front of them and their microphones. A few feet away from the tables were about twenty-five foldable chairs that could allow the person that sat upon them to watch the entire thing.

Of these chairs only about half of them were occupied. Most of them seemed to be the parents or parent of an opposing team member. Seeing as though there were still about ten minutes to go until the actual start of the match, Eric figured that all of them- or at least most of them- would be filled soon enough.

And he was correct. Just a few minutes after setting himself at his table with his other teammates, the people started to come into the gym, and soon enough every chair was filled.

Looking at the judges table, Eric watched as the man who had announced that everything was ready clear his throat and made to say something on his microphone. "Hello, welcome to the the academic competition between the schools of Groundswell and Stormybrooke high school . The game will go something like this: At he start of the match, there will be a series of questions that will be directed at both teams. To answer the question, just press the red buzzer that is sitting in front of you. In the second half of the game, it will turn to the individual rounds. Two players - one from each team- will come into the middle of the gym and answer a series of questions. Now, to begin."

As each team answered questions that the judges asked them, Eric couldn't help but notice something that was very annoying. A teenager of about eighteen years of age was sitting in one of the front row seats, clapping and yelling words of encouragement at Eric's team each time they answered a question.

While it was encouraging in a way, it didn't help with Eric's thinking process as they questions seemed to get harder and harder as the match went on. Eric hoped that they would make him go to another room or make him to do something to get him to shut up. Eric looked over at Annabeth, who sat there in the chair beside of him absentmindedly twirling a strand of her hair as she waited for the next question. He sincerely hoped that the blush on her cheeks was the result of the excitement that the match was presenting, and not of the dark-haired teenager encouraging them, who he had noticed her looking at a few times in the match.

Finally- Thank God- one of judges turned to the teenager and said, " Young man, that is enough. I am very sorry to do this, but I must ask you to go into the lobby for the remainder of this competition?"

"Why?" The teenager asked as if he didn't even realize that what he was doing was disruptive.

"You are making it hard for the competitors to think clearly with all the ruckus your making. Now I must ask you one more time - Please go out into the lobby for the remainder of the match."

The teenager gave a slight pout. "But,-" he started to say, but was interrupted.

"Just do what she says, Seaweed Brain." Eric looked over in surprise at Annabeth, who had been watching the entire scene in amusement, speak.

The teenager sighed. "Ok, I'll go." He made to stand up and walk towards the gym doors, but about halfway there he stopped and turned around, heading to Eric's table.

In a few short steps he had appeared before Annabeth. "Good luck." He said, and leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips before walking away.

One of the judges called after him, "No kissing the competitors in the middle of a competition, young man!"

The teenager gave a small, hearty laugh. "Sorry!" He called just before he walked out of the gym. However as soon as the doors closed, the teenager turned around and pressed his face to the small glass see-through area of the gym door.

Still in a daze over what had just occurred, Eric turned towards Annabeth and asked her in a whisper, "Who was that?" Please let him be a relative or something, Eric thought desperately, and not what I think he was. 

"Oh, him? He's my boyfriend, Percy." Annabeth said, not even turning to look at him.

Eric almost literally felt all of his plans for that day collapse around him at that single word. "Y-Y-Y-Y," He then slapped himself hard in the face before continuing. "Your boyfriend!" He finally managed to say.

"Yes. We've been going out for over a year now." Annabeth said.

"A year? Why didn't you mention him before?" Eric said. I could've prevented myself from liking you so much if you had told me about him sooner, Eric added in his thoughts.

Annabeth shrugged. "It never came up."

As the competition continued on, Eric tried in vain to ignore the teenager watching from the match from the gym doors and the beautiful blonde girl sitting beside of him. Sadly, he failed miserably.

And even when his team did win the competition, his euphoria soon faded at the sight of Percy -who had been aloud back inside the gym as soon as the competition was over- and Annabeth kissing passionately a few feet beside of him.


	9. Chapter 9

The sound of laughter and yelling and talking nearly drowned out the sound of waves crashing against the shoreline of the beach. Music bellowed from a radio that somebody had brought from their house, which, although sometimes static-y at points, but other than that it was perfectly fine.

All in all, Isabelle should have been having a good time. Key word: Should. Sure, she wanted to go over and talk with some of the girls that were on the cheerleading team with her, and that ongoing game of beach volleyball was really tempting. But something held her back.

A couple of weeks ago, Isabelle had personally invited her friend, Percy Jackson, to this very beach party. Normally, Isabelle knew, Percy didn't go to parties. Most of his excuses as to not going included, A) Camp stuff, B) I forgot, or, her personal least favorite, C) I was with my girlfriend. Out of all of these excuses, Isabelle figured the most probable -and the one she generally accepted the most- was the "I forgot" excuse. After all, Percy did have somewhat of a reputation as to being forgetful. The other excuses, well . . . to put it simply, she didn't believe them.

For starters, she knew that the camp that he went to was a summer camp, so how could he be doing "camp stuff" in the middle of the school year? Well, of course that excuse would count now considering it was in the summer, even if it was in the last remaining week of it. She didn't believe him on the last excuse because Isabelle had known him for almost a year now, and not once had she'd seen the supposed girlfriend that he had.

This party, however, she felt was different. It was on the beach, and, as everyone who even vaguely knew Percy Jackson knew that he had a love for all things water-related.

So, whenever Isabelle had asked him to come, she had regrettable already formed the mindset that he was indeed coming. Which had subsequently led her to fantasies of them laughing and talking and then -finally- he would officially ask her to be his girlfriend.

Now, looking down at the cute blue two-piece bathing suit that she had bought just for this occasion, Isabelle felt like a complete and total idiot.

A part of her kept telling her to get up and go have some fun already! Still a much larger part of her screamed at the other part to shut up and to let her wallow in her misery.

The sound of a vehicle pulling in on the beach distracted her from her thoughts. Hopefully, Isabelle looked up towards the sound. Maybe - just maybe- Percy had actually decided to come to this party, and all of her earlier fantasies would come true as well.

Feeling her heart speed up as she recognized the car as Percy's step-dad's car, Isabelle ran up to it as it parked amongst the other vehicles on the beach. She stopped a few feet from it as she waited for the occupant to come out.

This was going to be absolutely fantastic! In the future, she imagined telling her children of this wondrous day. Telling them of how this was the very day that she and their father had begin dating and. . . Ummm, who was that?

Thankfully, Isabelle had been correct that it was indeed Percy in that car. However, he wasn't the only occupant. A beautiful girl with curly blonde hair and grey eyes climbed out of the other side of the car. The mystery girl was wearing a grey one-piece swimsuit that almost matched the color of her eyes. A beach towel was thrown over her shoulders.

Percy, on the other hand, was wearing a pair of blue swimming trunks and a pair of sunglasses over his eyes.

Isabelle felt her heart leap in her chest as he smiled at her. "Hi, Isabelle." Percy said, with a slight wave of his hand, before coming up to her and hugging her.

Isabelle, who had closed her eyes in pleasure, opened her eyes long enough to see what she thought was the blonde haired girl tensing, but she relaxed immediately afterward, so Isabelle wasn't sure if it had actually happened, or if she had imagined the whole thing.

Percy pulled away from her and made his way back over to the girl, but Isabelle noticed something on his. . . . well, everywhere on his body really.

"Oh, my God!' Isabelle screeched, pointing towards the many scars that seemed to cover his entire body. "What happened to you?"

Percy looked at her in confusion. "What are you. . ." He started to say before looking down at his body. Realization dawned on his face as he saw what she was staring at. "Oh um, these well, um, well, it's not what it looks like. Um, there just, ummm. . ." Percy trailed off, apparently unable to find an answer to Isabelle's question.

The blonde haired girl took a step forward, consequently making Isabelle blink in surprise as she had forgotten that she was there. "We've went through some hard things, and these scars are the result of them." The girl said.

Isabelle looked at the girl, finally noticing that she possessed scars as well. "But how?" Isabelle asked. "How did you get them?"

"Some things are better off not known." The girl said.

"Oh." Isabelle said, realizing that the subject of the scars had been closed.

Silence followed for a few seconds, before Percy- god bless him- interrupted the awkward silence. " Um, Isabelle, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth. Annabeth, this is my friend, Isabelle." He said, gesturing towards the girl as he introduced them.

Isabelle forced a smile at the girl- Annabeth, she thought- as the revelation that Annabeth was Percy's girlfriend settled into her mind. "Hi, it's . . . nice to meet you." Isabelle said, silently forcing back the tears that she knew were threatening to come.

Annabeth nodded in agreement at her before taking Percy by the hand and walking with towards the direction of the party.

Isabelle followed them half-heartedly, feeling even worse than she had before.


	10. Chapter 10

Kevin did not like Percy Jackson, which he suppose he kind of felt bad about, considering the fact that he had never even met him. Kevin had tried many times to get himself to like him, but, after all the things that he had heard about him, it was extremely hard.

Percy was well known in his small group of friends as being Annabeth's boyfriend. Back before he had learned the truth from his friend, Eric, Kevin had been picturing a small and skinny boy with glasses with a nerdy aspect about him. Of course, later when he had been talking to Annabeth, she had shown him a picture of a tall, muscular guy with windswept black hair and sea green eyes. Kevin, although surprised at how wrong he had been when he had previously pictured Percy, remained neutral about how he felt about him until Annabeth had told him more about him.

Apparently, Percy Jackson was some guy from New York City who had been kicked out of. . . seven or eight schools since the time he was in the first-grade. When hearing about this, Kevin had begun to feel a tad bit nervous, but he waited silently as Annabeth told him more about him. As he listened to Annabeth, Kevin had gotten more and more weary about Percy, until he had subconsciously decided that he did not like him at all.

It was just, from all that he had heard about Percy Jackson, he seemed to be the definition of a "Bad Boy", which- after all he had heard about guys like this- made him insanely worried about Annabeth, who he felt deserved better than that.

Over the months, Kevin had relaxed about Percy Jackson somewhat, since Annabeth hardly mentioned him at all, but whenever she had announced that he was coming to stay at her place for spring break- well, needless to say, he had had a small panic attack. So, as the days passed and spring break loomed closer and closer, Kevin had tried to remain close to Annabeth at all times that he was with her, to make sure that she was all right.

Now, however, the moment of truth had arrived, and he was finally about to meet the famous Percy Jackson.

Kevin was standing beside a small stone bench outside of his school as he watched the road in front of him. Behind him, Annabeth was reading a book, which he had been unable to decide was to speed up the time until her boyfriend got there, or to do the opposite, and make time go on longer.

Kevin looked back at Annabeth. "So, when's he supposed to get here, again?" He said, feeling the palms of his hands start to sweat tremendously.

"He's supposed to get here in about five minutes, although more likely than not it will be ten by the time he gets here." Annabeth said, not even looking up from her book.

"Oh." Kevin said, shoving his sweaty hands into his pants pockets.

Annabeth was half right about the arrival time of her boyfriend, since about seven or eight minutes later a blue car pulled up to them.

Kevin immediately tensed as he saw the occupant of the car through the window. Stay calm, stay calm, he thought to himself as the driver's door to the car opened. A guy of about seventeen or eighteen years of age stepped out, a smile stretching from ear to ear across his face.

"Annabeth!" Percy half-said, half-yelled as he raced towards Annabeth and pulled her into a hug.

"Hi, Seaweed Brain. You didn't take as long getting here as I thought you would." Annabeth said.

Percy stepped back, trying his best to look somewhat offended. "What, you thought that I was going to be late, or something?"

"Well, you are late." Annabeth pointed out. "I just thought you would be even later than this."

"Well, it sure feels great that you have such high expectations of me." Percy said sarcastically, and Kevin had to suppress a smile.

Okay, so maybe Percy Jackson wasn't as bad as he thought he would be, but he still didn't trust him.

At that moment, Percy looked over to Kevin, as if he finally realized that he was there. "Who are you?" He asked curiously.

Reluctantly, Kevin stretched out his had in greeting. "Kevin. Kevin Michaels. I'm one of Annabeth's friends."

"Percy Jackson, Annabeth's boyfriend." Percy said, shaking Kevin's hand.

Percy pulled his hand away and turned back towards Annabeth. "You ready to go?" He asked.

"Yes." Annabeth said, smiling.

Kevin watched as Percy took Annabeth by her hand and pulled her over to his car, carefully opening the door for her- which, Kevin noticed, amused, Annabeth did not like at all- and getting in on the driver's side and driving away.

Kevin stood there for a few more moments, thinking about what he had just witnessed. He had been imagining Percy to be extremely moody and rude to everyone, but- strangely- he wasn't, from what Kevin had seen.

Maybe he had been wrong about Percy Jackson. Maybe he was actually a really cool guy that Kevin could be really good friends with. Maybe . . .

Who knows, thought Kevin as he walked away, maybe we actually could be friends, someday.


	11. Chapter 11

There was nothing that Derek Coleman loathed more in this world than Percy Jackson. The guy just seemed to have it all. He had the looks, the naturally charming personality that seemed to attract girls to him like bugs to a light, and - supposedly - a wickedly hot girlfriend.

But it wasn't like Derek was jealous of him or anything. No, he wasn't jealous of him at all. However, there were some things about Percy that Derek did not like. The first and most obvious was the fact that his ex-girlfriend- whom he had currently been dating at the time of the incident- had dumped him in favor of Percy, who apparently politely turned her down.

In all honesty, Derek was relieved that he had broken up with that girl- God knows they had been dating way to long and it was time to explore the other fish in the sea- but it hadn't been on his terms. Generally, Derek was the dumper and the girl was the dumpee, not the other way around.

Unsurprisingly, word got out that the Derek Coleman- one of the most popular guys in school- had been dumped. In fear of being seen as weak, Derek had retaliated this by dating six girls in two months and dumping all of them. Thankfully, talk about . . . that incident died down soon after that, but Derek never forgot about it.

And the second reason why he did not like Percy Jackson . . . well, really that was the only reason that he hated him, but it felt like a good enough reason.

And so, the day that Derek saw Percy hanging out with an amazingly beautiful girl in the parking lot of their school, Derek knew he had found his chance of revenge.

Running his fingers through his blonde hair, Derek made his way over to them. When he reached them, Derek bowed down deeply, smirking, trusting his seemingly natural ability to charm girls into doing whatever he wanted.

"Why hello, ma'am. How are you doing this evening." Derek asked, straightening back up again.

The girl, however, remained unfazed by him. "Fine, thank you." She said, before turning back around towards Percy, who was glaring at him.

Derek frowned in frustration before trying once again to win the girl over.

"You know, I wouldn't be talking to that guy." He told the girl. And then, in a mock-whisper, he said, "I think he might be dangerous."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Dangerous? Really? Why would you say that."

"Well, I know that as a matter of fact that he has been kicked out of over seven schools."

The girl tilted her head, a thoughtful expression upon her face. "Really? Hmm, that's funny, I've been kicked out of schools as well."

Derek blinked, surprised at this new revelation. "He was in a national manhunt a few years back." Derek said, purposefully neglecting to tell the girl that he had been cleared.

"Hmm-mmm." The girl said, now looking to be annoyed with him.

Thinking quickly, Derek proceeded to his final way of stealing this girl from Percy. "You know, his step-dad was an abusive alcoholic and his mom is a total whore- who knows what effects those parental influences had him." Derek said, looking towards Percy, whose face was blank with fury.

In doing this, however, he took his line of sight from the girl. Which, in turn, made him fail to notice the knee coming towards the place on his body where the sun does not shine.

Falling down to the ground as his world erupted into one of pain and misery, Derek looked up at the girl, now staring at him in disgust.

"W-what did I do." Derek asked.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Oh, nothing. You just tried to sabotage my view of my boyfriend."

"B-b-b-boyfriend?" Derek stammered out.

Percy nodded his head, looking over at the girl with pride on his face. "Yeah, I'm her boyfriend. For over a year now actually." Percy offered his hand towards the girl. "Ready to go, Annabeth?" Percy asked.

"Of course." Annabeth said, taking his hand.

Derek watched as they walked away, still in disbelief over what had just happened.

A few minutes later, his friends found him, still lying down on the ground. Derek swayed slightly as they helped him up from the ground.

"Whoah, dude, what happened to you. Did somebody beat you up?" His friend Austin asked him, looking for any possible threats.

Derek smiled weakly at them. "You should see the other guys."


	12. Chapter 12

"Thank you. Have a nice day." Kimberly told the young teenage girl standing in front of her as she gave her her purchase.

The teen, however, seemed to give no notice to Kimberly, and snatched up the small bag quickly before going over to join the rest of her friends, eagerly showing them her new necklace.

As soon as the girl had walked away, Kimberly curled over the glass display case with a small groan. This headache doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, Kimberly thought as she rubbed her temples. Out of the corner of her eye, Kimberly spotted her designer purse, sitting out of the way a few feet from her. I hope I have some Tylenol or something, Kimberly thought as she walked over to her purse.

Opening the purse, Kimberly dug her hands through it, searching for anything that could help with her headache. Finally- Thank God- she felt her hand close around a bottle of pain killers, only to be dismayed once more when she discovered that it was empty.

Annoyed, Kimberly stuffed the empty container back down into her purse. I go on break in about half an hour anyways, Kimberly thought as she sat her purse back down to the ground. Surely I can hold on for that long.

It was only when she had straightened up fully once more that she realized that she had a customer waiting for her.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, blushing profusely as she made her way over to the young dark-haired male standing by the counter.

"Hello." Kimberly said, adopting a professional air about her. "How may I help you?"

The man opened and closed his mouth several times, before swallowing and repeating the process. When it appeared that he had his nerves under control, the man blurted out, "Do you have any engagement rings?"

"Of course. If you will follow me." Kimberly said as she walked over to the glass counter that displayed such rings.

The young man bent over the glass display, tracing his finger over the glass as he searched for the perfect ring for his girlfriend. Kimberly watched him intently as his finger stopped several times over various rings, but after a few seconds he would merely shake his head and move on to the next one.

After a few more minutes- in which time Kimberly had reverted back to rubbing her temples- the man said, "That's it."

Kimberly looked down at the ring that the man had stopped his finger on. It was quite simple really- a single diamond with a bluish tint set into a band of sterling silver.

"Ah. That's a good choice." Kimberly said automatically as she reached into the display case and took out the ring. Carefully, Kimberly set the ring down in front of the man so that he could further inspect it.

The man picked up the ring and placed it in the palm of his hand, bringing it up to his eye as he made sure that this was the ring that he wanted.

The man looked back up at Kimberly eagerly. "Great how much-" he started to say, but then his eyes grew wide at something behind Kimberly. The man quickly stuffed the ring down into his coat pocket, which Kimberly was about to protest to when a young blonde-haired girl made her way over to them.

"A-A-Annabeth! What are you doing here." The man asked, nervously, keeping his hand in his coat pocket, no doubt trying to hide the ring further.

Annabeth shrugged. "They let us off work early. What are you doing here, Percy?" She asked, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"Oh, uh, you know, just walking around the mall." Percy said.

"Mmm-hmm, and why have you stopped at the jewelry department? And what do you have in your pocket?" Annabeth said in amusement.

"Oh! I, um, there's nothing in my pocket. What are you talking about. Are you feeling all right? Maybe you should go lay down for a little while until I'm ready and we can go someplace else. Preferably somewhere that can be defined as romantic like-oh I don't know- a park or a zoo- no, forget the zoo, that's a terrible idea. Well, I'm sure I'll think of something, but in the mean time you need to go lay down and get some rest." Percy said, starting to lead Annabeth over to a bench.

Annabeth, however, didn't oblige. She stopped in her tracks and unwrapped her boyfriend's arm from around her shoulders. "Percy," she stated calmly. "Take that ring out of your pocket and ask me that stupid question before you have a heart attack." She said, which caused Kimberly to nearly laugh out loud.

"A ring? What are you- Oh fine!" Percy exclaimed, taking the ring out of his pocket.

He abruptly got down on to one knee, and, holding the ring high above his head as he stared down at his shoelaces, asked "Will you marry me."

"Of course, you idiot." Annabeth said.

Percy looked up, smiling widely. "So, that's a yes, then."

"Well, in a manner of words, yes that is a yes to that question." Annabeth said, a smile creeping into her face ever so slowly.

"Great!" Percy said, and Kimberly watched as he stood up and carefully placed the ring onto Annabeth's finger. "Oh, thank the Gods, it fits." Percy said, as he slid the ring all the way back. Then he looked back up at her, smiling.

"You ready to go." Percy asked.

"No." Annabeth said.

"What? Why not?" Percy asked.

Annabeth sighed and took the ring off her finger. "You still have to pay for it, you know."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that." Percy said as he took the ring from her and walked back over to where Kimberly was standing, where he paid for the ring and apologized to Kimberly for the hold up.

"It's all right." Kimberly said once again as she handed Percy back his change."

Kimberly smiled as she watched him walk away, then glanced down at her wristwatch. Still fifteen minutes to go.


	13. Chapter 13

Howard felt his eyebrows raise slightly as he read through the small stack of papers that he held in front of him. Apparently, from what he was reading, this young man that was sitting in front of him had found it in him to go to over eight different schools, be on a national manhunt when he was just twelve years old- cleared of all charges, of course-, and have a habit of being either tardy for a lot of his classes, leave during the middle of them, or not show up at all.

Howard heaved a great sigh as he placed the papers down in front of him. Of course, he had handled these types of children and teenagers before, but in all of his years of working in various schools, he had never ever seen a case this bad. From what he had just read, this student was on his way to either going to a juvenile detention center or a prison in a matter of a few years of even months. Still, Howard felt as if he should at least try to direct him down the right path.

Howard steepled his fingers together as he looked up at the dark-haired youth sitting in front of him. Clearing his throat loudly and for effect, Howard said, " From what I have just read from your reports from your previous schools you seem to be quite the trouble-maker, am I correct?"

Percy shifted uncomfortably in his chair before he retaliated with, " I'm not a trouble-maker- trouble just seems to follow me around."

"Hmm, does it? Does it really, as you say, follow you around? Or are you really just trying not to put blame on yourself, and instead place it onto others?" Howard said, straightening up in his chair.

Percy looked utterly flabbergasted at Howard's choice of words. "I'm not placing the blame on anybody."

Howard raised his eyebrows even higher. "Oh, really? So you are taking responsibility for all of the things that you've done in your past?"

Percy muttered something that Howard couldn't hear.

"I'm sorry, but what did you just say?" Howard asked.

"I said no, not all of them." Percy said.

"And why is that?" Howard questioned.

"Because not all of them were my fault." Percy said.

Howard leaned forward in his chair. "So, according to you, you are a complete innocent that the forces of the universe seem to be working against?"

"No! I mean . . . I'm not . . ." Percy staggered off on his sentence, unable to form the correct words.

"Not innocent?" Howard suggested.

"No! I mean yes. I mean-" Percy cut off as the sound of loud, angry voices came from just outside the door.

"Young lady! You can not just barge into the principles office of a school that you don't even go to!" Howard heard the secretary practically scream.

"This is important!" A teen girl's voice said, almost as loud as the secretary. Not even two seconds later, the door to his office was thrown wide open and a teenage girl with blonde hair and gray eyes ran in, followed closely by the secretary - an elderly woman with gray hair tied into a bun- who tried in vain to snatch the girl's wrist and drag her out of there.

"Young lady," Howard said calmly. "I would like to ask you to leave this office until I am finished with this meeting."

"I am very sorry sir, but that is not going to happen." The girl said, turning towards Percy, who- which Howard just now noticed- was standing up.

"Trouble at camp?" Percy asked her.

The girl nodded her head. A silent conversation seemed to go on between the two of them before Percy turned back around toward Howard. "I am really sorry, Mr Clyde, but I am afraid that I have to go now."

Howard felt his face go red at that simple sentence. " Now, wait just a minute young man! You can not just walk out of this specially planned meeting! I am sure that whatever is wrong with your camp can wait at least ten to fifteen more minutes!"

Howard felt rather saw the girl train her piercing gray eyes on him. "I'm sorry sir, but it simply can't wait ten to fifteen more minutes." The girl said.

"And you are?" Howard asked.

"Annabeth Chase." Annabeth said impatiently.

"Well, Ms. Chase, I am sure that what ever is going on at your little camp will just have to be solved without you, won't it? Now if you will please live this room until I am finished." Howard stood up, intending to make his way over to Annabeth, intending to lead her out of the room.

Instead, she walked right up to him and snapped her fingers at him. Before he could ask what she was doing, Annabeth said, "You had something extremely important that just came up, and you must go towards it immediately."

Howard blinked. "Why, yes, of course. How could I have forgotten?" He pondered quietly to himself. He turned his head back around towards Percy, who was staring at him in amusement. "Mr. Jackson, I am afraid that we will have to continue this meeting some other day. Now if you will excuse me." Howard said, starting to get his things together.

The secretary- who had remained silent all this time- said, "But, sir, what are you talking about?"

Howard vaguely heard Annabeth telling the secretary what she had just told him a few seconds ago.

The secretary blinked. "I see. Well, Mr. Clyde, you'd better get going then." Before turning back to go into her own workplace.

Gathering up his stuff together, Howard walked out from behind his desk. "Good day to you all." Howard said to Percy and Annabeth as he passed them. He wondered vaguely in the back of his mind why it looked as though they were trying not to laugh, but that thought was quickly banished, by the thought of the important thing he had to go to.

"Must hurry, must hurry." He mumbled to himself as he struggled to get the office door open. "Must hurry."


	14. Chapter 14

Paige idly turned the pages of her literature book, her mind wandering off to God knows where as she read some ancient Greek myth. Suppressing a yawn, she furiously blinked her eyes open in the hopes of waking herself up some more.

Before she could stop herself, Paige glanced around the room, thankfully noticing that most of the other people as tired or bored as she herself was. Except for one person, it seemed. A blonde girl who sat next to her- Annabeth, she remembered- was staring at her open book with a blank expression on her face, as if she was seeing the story, but, at the same time, not really seeing it either.

Nervously, Paige glanced up at her teacher's desk, and, after she had thankfully noted that he was to involved with the book he was reading to ever notice what she was doing, Paige reached out her hand towards Annabeth.

Paige laid her hand gently on Annabeth's shoulder. "Hey," she whispered. "Are you all right."

To Paige's utter shock, and, somewhere deep down, embarrassment, Annabeth screamed, a sound which tore through the silent classroom like a bullet.

The effect of her scream was instantaneous. Pencils and pens were thrown into the air in shock, textbooks and notebooks were shoved off people's desks, and- something that Paige would have found to be extremely funny had the circumstances been different- the teacher fell out of his chair, the book that he had been flying out of his hands and onto the floor a few feet away.

The teacher, Mr. Clarks, stood up and- after straightening his clothes- rushed over towards the screaming. "Ms. Chase! I would like to ask you to calm down." He said, having to yell to be heard over Annabeth's screaming.

Annabeth, however, didn't even seem to acknowledge his existence and continued on screaming.

"Ms. Chase." Mr. Clarks said again, looking utterly frightened and bewildered. "Please calm down. You are interrupting this class period." He said, and then sighed as the screaming continued, seemingly more loud than before.

Mr. Clarks looked over towards Paige. "Ms. Sykes," he said quietly, as if she and him were trading secrets. "Would please escort Ms. Chase to the nurses office?"

Paige nodded her head, and- with the assistance of Mr. Clarks- managed to get up out of her chair and onto her feet.

Paige walked out of the classroom, half carrying half dragging Annabeth- who was still screaming- along with her.

Thankfully, the nurses office wasn't too far from her classroom- something that Paige had never been more grateful. Approaching the door, Paige tried to shift Annabeth's weight so that she could knock on the door. Failing at doing that, Paige brought back her foot and kicked the door, hoping that that would be just as efficient as using her hands would be.

The door opened and a middle-aged woman with dirty blonde hair stepped out, eyes widening as she took in the sight in front of her. "What happened?" She asked, taking Annabeth from Paige and leading her into a seat in her office.

Paige followed her. "I-I don't know. She just started screaming in the middle of class."

"What were you doing?" the nurse asked, carefully placing Annabeth down into the seat.

"We were reading some Greek myth." Paige said, to which the nurse nodded at taking in this information.

"Well, I'm not so sure I can do anything for this myself. I'm going to try to get a hold of somebody." The nurse said, almost to herself as she walked over to her desk and opened one of the drawers. She searched for something for a few minutes, then brought out a small piece of paper that Paige recognized as a health emergency card.

The nurse picked up the school phone beside her desk as she read the card, then pushed the appropriate number into the phone.

Setting the paper down onto the phone, the nurse waited for somebody to pick up the phone on the other line.

Paige stood there awkwardly, unsure of whether or not she was supposed to go back to class or not. Glancing over at Annabeth as she screamed yet again, Paige jumped in surprise as she heard the nurse began to talk to someone on the phone.

"Are you Mr. Blofis?" The nurse asked. She was quiet as she waited for the person on the other line to answer.

"Yes, well, I was calling about a student over here, Annabeth Chase." The nurse said, and then became quiet once again.

"The girl who brought her in just said that she started screaming in the middle of class." The nurse said.

"They were in the midst of reading a Greek myth." The nurse said.

"Your step-son? What on earth can he do about this?" The nurse asked.

"Boyfriend? Well, yes I suppose he could help, but why call you when you can't even do anything about this?" The nurse asked.

"No cell phone? Really? Hmmm, well that is strange. Do you think that he'll mind coming over to calm her down?" The nurse asked.

"All right then. I'll expect him over in a few minutes." The nurse said, and then hung up the phone.

"Ms. Sykes." The nurse exclaimed as she noticed that Paige was still standing there. "What are you still doing here."

Paige thought of something very quickly. "I want to stay with her until her boyfriend arrives. To make sure she's all right until then." Which, thankfully, wasn't at all a lie. Paige did want to make sure that Annabeth was all right.

The nurse looked over her once, and Paige was afraid that the woman would still send her back to class, then the nurse said. "Very, well. I have to run something by the office anyway, so it will be good if you stay with her until I came back." And after saying that, the nurse picked up various pieces of paper on her desk and walked out of the room.

Paige looked over at Annabeth, who had thankfully stopped screaming, but had now drawn her legs up to her chest and was shaking violently as sobs tore through her.

Paige turned her head away, instead focusing on the mounted clock on the wall in the corner of the room.

A few minutes passed- Or was it fifteen?- and a tall guy with black hair and sea green eyes rushed into the room.

Seeing Annabeth, he immediately rushed towards her, kneeling down on the ground beside of her. "Hey. Hey, Wise Girl. Hey come on you are all right. I'm all right. Everyone's all right. Come on your safe. Okay? your safe."

The guy continued talking like this until, finally, Annabeth stopped shaking and removed her hands from her face. "Percy? You're okay?"

Percy smiled. "Yeah. . . never better."

Annabeth gave a small laugh and reached out and hugged him tightly. They stayed like that for a few minutes, and then Annabeth let go and Percy helped her up from her seat.

"Come on. Let's go see a movie or something, ok?" Percy asked, leading Annabeth over to the door.

Paige looked over in shock at them. "But you can't do that! She needs to back to class and- and" Paige said, faltering at the end at the way the boy was looking at her.

"You honestly want her to go back to class after this? Especially to one that this happened in?" Percy asked.

Paige rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, no . . . Fine, go ahead. I'll cover for her."

Percy smiled widely at her. "Thanks." He said, and then he led Annabeth out of the room.


	15. Chapter 15

Out of all of the things that Stephen expected to see this morning on his way to work, this was most certainly not one of them.

His neighbor, Percy Jackson, lay asleep in front of his apartment door, using his coat as a makeshift blanket. Stephen, momentarily startled by the sight before him, cocked his head in confusion, mentally processing the sight before him.

Reaching out a hand to shake his neighbor awake, Stephen pulled back abruptly as Percy yawned and sat up.

He blinked for about a minute or two, trying to get rid of the last remnants of sleep from his eyes.

When he was done, Percy pulled his coat off of him and stood up, finally noticing Stephen. "Oh, hey." Percy said sheepishly, picking up his coat from the floor.

Stephen nodded his head. Clearing his throat, he said, "Percy, why were you lying asleep in the front of your apartment?"

"Well I might have . . . kind of . . . locked myself out of my own apartment." Percy said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"You locked yourself out of your apartment?" Stephen repeated. "How on earth did you manage to do that?"

"Well, long story short, my pregnant wife woke up in the middle of the night craving pickles, so I walked across the street to go buy some, and when I got back, I realized that I had forgotten my keys in the house." Percy said, and Stephen finally noticed the small grocery bag lying a few feet from Percy's feet.

"Why didn't you knock on the door or something to wake her up." Stephen asked.

"I guess she fell back asleep -trust me, she sleeps like a log these days- or she didn't hear me for some reason." Percy said.

At that moment, the door to the apartment behind Percy opened, causing him to leap back to avoid being hit by it. A woman with blonde curly hair and grey eyes still before them, still clad in her pajamas, looking incredibly anxious.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked relief flooding through her face. However, this was quickly replaced by a look of rage. "Where have you been! I have been looking for you everywhere! You had me worried sick!" She said, before reaching over to hug her husband tightly.

When she pulled away, Percy picked up the grocery bag and handed it to her. "I got you what you wanted."

A look of utter confusion upon her face, Annabeth looked down inside the bag. Almost immediately, her facial features changed into one of disgust. "Pickles?" She said, bewildered. "I hate pickles. Why on Earth would I want those." She said as she handed the bag back towards Percy.

"B-b-b-but . . . I . . . you . . .want . . .buy . . . pickles . . . middle . . . night . . . I . . .What?" Percy managed to stutter out as his gaze went from the bag in his hand to his wife as she walked back into the apartment. Shaking his head violently, Percy followed her, still mumbling incoherently.

As the door closed behind Percy, Stephen walked away, chuckling quietly at what he had just seen.


	16. Chapter 16

"I think I'm in love." Julie heard her friend Kayla say as she gazed down at her book.

"What?" Julie asked, looking up from the book.

"I think I'm in love." Kayla repeated, gazing into the swimming pool a few feet from them.

"Why?" Julie asked.

Without a word, Kayla pointed to a guy with black hair and tan skin clad in a pair of blue swimming trunks.

"Oh. . . you've got a new crush." Julie said.

Kayla lowered her hand and looked over at Julie. "What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.

Julie shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing, really, it's just that you tend to get crushes on people very easily."

"No, I don't!" Kayla exclaimed.

"Yeah, you do." Julie said, then added, "And, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that," as she noticed Kayla about to argue with her.

Kayla sighed. "So, what if I get crushes easily. I'm a teenager - I'm supposed to get crushes and fall in love and all that."

"With over twenty people?" Julie asked, smirking slightly.

Kayla rolled her eyes at her. "Oh, now you are exaggerating. I know that I don't have crushes on over twenty people!"

"Close, though." Julie said as Kayla suddenly grabbed her arm.

"He's coming over! He's coming over!" She exclaimed. "Quick! Act natural!" She said, and immediately started laughing and talking immensely.

She only stopped when the cute boy was standing right in front of them. Kayla immediately stopped and looked over at him. "Oh, hey! I didn't see you there. Do you want something?"

The boy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, I was wondering if maybe you had seen my girlfriend. She walked by this way to go to the bathroom about ten minutes ago and I haven't seen her since."

Kayla's face fell at his words. She opened and closed her mouth a few times but nothing came out. Julie, noticing her friend's predicament, immediately came to her rescue. "What does she look like?"

The boy smiled. "Oh, she's really beautiful. She has curly blonde hair that's kind of long, but not really, and grey eyes. She's amazing." He added as an after thought.

Julie shook her heard apologetically. "No, I'm sorry. I haven't seen her. I hope that- " then she broke off as a smile spread across the boy's face.

"Annabeth!" He yelled, more out of relief than anger. "What happened? Are you all right?"

Julie looked behind her and saw a girl with blonde hair coming towards them. "I'm all right. Just a little trouble in the bathrooms. Don't worry. I took care of it."

The boy, however, didn't seem satisfied. "How many?" He asked.

"Just one." Annabeth said.

The boy nodded his head. "Did you get hurt?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Just a few bruises. But I'm all right!" She added hastily as she saw the boy opening his mouth again.

"Good." The boy said. Then, smiling, he leaned down and kissed the girl.

"Love you." He said as they pulled away.

"I love you, too, Percy. Now, come on, let's go get back into the pool." Annabeth said, taking Percy's hand and leading him away.

Worryingly, Julie looked over at Kayla, who looked on the verge of tears.

Sighing, Julie grabbed her book and stood up. "Come on. Let's get dressed and go to the park. Who knows, we might even meet some cute guys up there." She said, reaching for Kayla's hand.

Kayla sniffed. "Thanks." She said softly as she grabbed her best friend's hand.


	17. Chapter 17

Justin smugly straightened his bow tie as he stared at himself in the mirror one last time. Hmm, let's see, he thought as he went over his appearance one last time. Recently polished shoes . . . check, washed and pressed clothes . . . check, hair combed slightly to one side . . . check . Well everything seems to be in order, Justin thought as he shrugged his suit jacket on.

As he finished putting the jacket on, he heard a voice coming from downstairs. "Justin! Darling, it is time to go."

"Coming, Mother." Justin said as he rushed out of his bedroom.

He slowed his pace down to a walk when he had reached the stairs. He paused a moment before walking down them, pausing to silently catch his breath, despite the fact that his little run had only lasted about ten seconds.

Straightening up again, he slowly walked down the stairs to his mother, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest, carefully observing every detail of his outfit to make sure that it was appropriate for the occasion.

After she had finished scrutinizing every little detail of his outfit, she smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Come," she said, pulling her hand away, your father is already in the car." Then she turned around and walked away, Justin following close behind her.

 

It only took them about fifteen minutes to reach their destination. It would have only took ten minutes but they were caught up by stoplights and slight traffic.

Opening the car door, Justin got out stretched his limbs.

Looking up, he carefully took in the house before him. It wasn't much- just a red two-story house with a white picket fence surrounding it, giving it a remarkably picturesque feel about it.

Justin sighed heavily as he noticed that he and his family - along with the people who already lived there- were the only ones in the driveway. He supposed it would be at least another ten to fifteen minutes before other people showed up and they could get this dinner over with.

Then again . . . there was a high possibility that she would be here as well, and -personally- Justin would want to cherish every single minute with her.

The her in general being what Justin believed to be God's finest gift on earth. Annabeth Chase, the daughter of one of his father's co-workers, was- in Justin's own personal opinion being the utter definition of perfect. She was beautiful, smart, and athletic all at once- something that Justin believed to be unbelievably rare in anyone.

And, almost as if the universe was reading his mind, a car pulled into the driveway, a car that Justin had purposefully memorized at the last dinner that he had attended. Holding his breath, he waited as the car parked and the family inside stepped out.

Mr. Chase stepped out of the car first, closely followed by his wife, two sons, and . . . Yes! ! ! Annabeth was there. Justin mentally smiled as he thought of how this evening would turn out. Well, honestly, he couldn't say precisely how that evening would turn out, but he knew someway somehow he would make Annabeth see how amazing he was, and by the end of the night he could successfully call her his girlfriend.

Yes . . . as far as he was concerned, this night was going to be per- um, just who in the name of all that is holy was that? Justin thought as teenaged boy step out of the chase's car.

Justin went over in his head the family members that Annabeth had, trying in some way to explain who this person was with them. Father, Mother- no, Step-Mother- , two brothers, and . . . him? Who was he exactly? A cousin? A friend? A boyfriend? Justin mentally shuddered as that last thought entered into his brain. What if that guy was Annabeth's boyfriend. Justin allowed himself to mentally fret over that thought for a few seconds before logic caught up with him. Even if they were together, there were highly unlikely to stay together. In fact, Justin even doubted that they had been together longer than a few weeks. If they were actually together, that is.

 

About an hour later, Justin was sitting at an out-of-the-way table with the other kids and teenagers there, a decision that Justin was deeply and truly against, seeing that there was massive age difference between the oldest kid and the youngest teenager, causing them to not have a lot in common.

Thankfully, however, it had seemed that both the kids and the teenagers had noticed this problem, and as a result the kids filled up one half of the table while the teenagers filled the other. Not the best agreement in the situation that they were in, but it still more or less worked to an extent.

Personally, Justin like this seating arrangement, seeing that it brought him closer to Annabeth . . .and also, regrettably her "friend"- Justin mentally refused to call, the guy her boyfriend, even though he had seen them kiss before they sat down at the table together.

Justin shook himself out of his thoughts as Annabeth stood up from the table and walked away, most presumably to the bathroom.

Almost as soon as she walked away, a girl, who Justin briefly remembered her name being Abigail, moved closer to Annabeth's friend. By the way that she was using her body language, it was obvious that she was flirting with him.

Justin felt rage consume him as he saw Annabeth's bo- "Friend" not do anything about it. It was almost as if he didn't even notice that the girl was flirting with him. After a few more minutes of watching Abigail flirt with the guy, Justin angrily stood up and walked away- intending to search for Annabeth. Even thought he didn't really know her that well, he knew that she did not deserve to be treated that way.

Justin paused as he heard the sound of running water in the room next to him. He stepped back as the door opened and Annabeth appeared.

She blinked when she noticed him standing there. " Oh! Hi, it's . . . Justin, right?" She asked somewhat uncertainly.

"What? Oh, yes, it is. Annabeth, there is something that I have to tell you, and I don't know how you are going to take it." Justin took a deep breath before continuing. "A girl is flirting with your boyfriend and he isn't doing anything about it." Justin said, and to his surprise soon afterwards he heard Annabeth laugh.

"What?" Justin asked, bewildered at her reaction.

"Oh, nothing, it's just that that sounds exactly like my boyfriend.." Annabeth said, smiling.

Justin sighed, so the poor girl had gone through this before. "Look, I know that it is kind of hard to accept, but maybe you should move on from him. Start seeing . . . other people."

Annabeth glared at him. "And why would I do that? I love him."

Almost as soon as she said this, Justin felt his anger rise to a new level and he cried, " It's not love it's lust- you'll get over it!"

Justin had barely finished speaking before he felt something strike him across the face. He stepped back, clutching his cheek in shock.

"If you ever talk that way about me and my boyfriend ever again, you'll get a whole lot worse than a slap next time, okay?" Annabeth said, her teeth clenched together.

Justin swallowed and nodded. Annabeth glared at him one last time before walking away. Justin followed her a few minutes later, and to his utter dismay when he reached the table again, Annabeth was sharing a soft kiss with her boyfriend.

Justin paused a moment before he continued walking and finally sat back down in his chair, wishing more than anything that that evening was over with already.


	18. Chapter 18

"Here, Mom." Cassie said as she watched her mother struggle to hold the containers of food while trying to knock on the door in front of her.

"Oh, thank you Cassandra." Her mother said as she handed her a few of the containers.

Straightening up, her mother managed to reach out her hand and knock on the door in front of her. Cassie watched as the door opened, revealing a young man standing in the door in front of them.

"Oh, hi." The man said, taken aback by their sudden arrival.

"Hello, I'm Margaret, and this is my daughter, Cassie." Cassie's mother said excitedly. "I heard that we had new neighbors that just moved in, so I brought you some dinner." Immediately, she thrust the boxes of food towards the poor man.

"Oh, um, thanks for that." The man said. "I'm Percy, by the way." He said, reaching out to take the boxes of food from her mother's hands.

"Why thank you, Percy. It is so nice to meet you. Can we come in?" Margaret asked, somewhat too eagerly.

"Um. . . sure? I guess." Percy said, shrugging his shoulders, stepping back so as to allow them into the apartment.

Cassie walked into the apartment behind her mother, carefully avoiding the various cardboard boxes placed throughout the room. Cassie stopped in the middle of the room, standing awkwardly beside her mother.

In front of them, Percy looked around the apartment. "Sorry about the mess - we haven't had time to unpack yet."

"I must say dear, who is this other person that you are speaking of. I don't seem to see them. We would certainly love to meet them."

" My fiancé, Annabeth." Percy said.

"Your fiancé?" Margaret repeated.

"Yeah." Percy said, smiling.

"What is she like." Cassie's mother asked, to which Cassie inwardly groaned at her mother's attempt at small talk.

"Oh, she's just- she's great. She's smart and nice and beautiful and - well, just amazing, really." Percy said, getting a faraway look in his eyes as he talked about his fiancé.

Margaret smiled. "She sounds nice."

"Yeah, she is." Percy said, just as Cassie heard footsteps coming towards the apartment.

Cassie turned around just as a woman with long curly blonde hair and grey eyes walk into the room carrying various grocery bags in her hands. "Hey, Seaweed Brain, who's this." The girl asked as she walked up towards Percy and setting her stuff down on the floor.

"Oh, this is Margaret and her daughter Cassie- they are our new neighbors. Oh, and they brought food for us." Percy said.

" It's nice to meet you. I'm Annabeth." The girl said with a slight nod of her head.

"It's so nice to meet you, too." Margaret said, and then looking down at her watch, she exclaimed. "Oh, my look at the time! I'm so sorry, but we really have to be going now. I hope that you enjoy the food I brought you."

"Good-bye." Cassie said as she started to follow her mother as she walked out of the apartment .


	19. Chapter 19

Shawn breathed out slowly as he pulled the cigarette from his mouth. He watched the smoke as it wafted up into the air and spread out. Shawn figured that he had been in the school bathroom for, oh, perhaps fifteen minutes at least. Or it could have been thirty- he honestly didn't know.

Long enough to go through two cigarettes, Shawn thought as he placed the cigarette back into his mouth.

Usually one or two of his friends came into the restroom to smoke with him during the class periods that they deemed useless, but Shawn wanted to do it alone this time- he needed time to think by himself and not have his friends joking around like idiots around him.

Think about things like what he was going to do now that his parents had seemingly split up for good. Of course, both of his parents had at various times in his life had walked out on them- but they had always reconciled by at the most two weeks. It had been three this time- and it didn't look like his dad would be back any time soon. And- if they were officially separated now- how to tell his five-year-od-sister that her father would never come back.

Suddenly, all of the feelings that he had been feeling these past few weeks- all the hurt and anger and misery and guilt- exploded into one violent yell as he repeatedly kicked the restroom wall with his foot.

His outbreak subsided after about a minute, and as he fought to catch his breath he listened intently for any sign that anyone had heard him. To his utter disappointment, he heard the sound of running footsteps coming towards the restroom.

" Oh, shi-." Shawn exclaimed as he quickly grabbed his backpack and pulled into one of the restroom stalls with him.

Shawn backed as far as he could into the stall as he waited to see if it was safe to go out again.

Soon enough, Shawn heard voices coming from outside the restroom- and to his relief they did not sound like teachers voices. However, the more he listened in on the conversation the two individuals were having, the more confused he got.

"Quick, Percy!" A girl's voice exclaimed. "It's coming our way!"

"I know Annabeth, I'm trying. " A boy's voice whom Shawn presumed to be Percy's said.

"It's almost here. Remember our plan?" Annabeth asked.

"Which one? Plan A, B, C, or D?" Percy asked sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up." Annabeth said, and Shawn could practically feel her face turning red from all the way over here. "THE plan."

"Okay. THE plan." Percy repeated, and suddenly Shawn heard what seemed to be growls and roars coming from outside the restroom. Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, he pushed himself back farther into the stall, desperate to get away from those horrid sounds. And, after a while when his mind finally realized that those noise wouldn't be going away anytime soon, he childishly put his hands over his ears and shut his eyes- an action he had almost perfected when he was younger and had heard his parents fighting.

After a few minutes he removed his hands from his ears as he listened for any sign of those noises coming from outside. To his relief, the sounds of that. . . of that. . . of that wild animal- or whatever it was- had disappeared. Along with, it seemed, the two teenagers that had been outside the restroom. Shawn wondered what had happened to them for a brief moment, but he didn't let it bother him much, as he felt that he had bigger things to worry about.

Turning to the toilet, Shawn dropped the rest of his cigarette into the toilet and reached towards the handle and pulled it and watched as the cigarette spun in circles as it went down the drain.


	20. Chapter 20

The problem with being a reformed criminal, thought Carl as he walked down the street to yet another job interview, was the fact that nobody ever believed that you were truly reformed. 

Personally, Carl had little hopes for this job interview. It would probably just go as the others had gone- him trying his best to pursue the person who was interviewing him that although, yes, he had been in jail for a few years for assault and drug use but he was all right now, honestly. As to be expected, they never believed him. Not that Carl could blame them anyway. After all, he could see from where they were coming from. Still, that didn't make the constant jumping around from job interview to job interview any less frustrating.

All of the sudden, he heard a scream of pain coming from an alleyway a few feet in front of him. Bewildered, Carl stopped- whether in fright or shock, he honestly didn't know- but then another scream- a much more animalistic scream- came from the same area.

Coming out of his trance, Carl ran up to the alleyway, where he saw two teenagers. One was sitting on the ground, clutching his side and panting in pain. The other one, a girl with curly blonde hair, was standing over him, trying to coax something into his mouth.

"Hey!" Carl called out to them. "Do you guys need any help?"

Startled, the two teenagers jumped, having not realized that they were being watched. The blonde girl said something under her breath and hastily shoved whatever she held in her hand into the other teenagers mouth. The dark-haired boy relaxed somewhat- at least his panting had slow down to short, hasty breaths.

The blonde-haired girl straightened up and looked Carl straight in the eye, which- although he was a whole head taller than her- made him decidedly nervous.

"We're okay, we just ran into a bit of trouble, that's all."

"Yeah, trouble." The dark-haired boy, who had somehow managed to get to his feet, said.

Carl looked at him in surprise. Just a minute ago, the boy had almost been bent double in pain, and now he looked as though it had never happened.

"How did-" Carl started to say, but the blonde-haired girl cut him off.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we really must be going. We promised some friends that we would meet with them fifteen minutes ago and I really don't want them to get worried about us."

"Oh, um, okay, then." Carl said, watching the boy and girl as they walked away.

Still trying to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed, Carl looked down at his watch and swore loudly. His interview was in fifteen minutes, and he was at least a good thirty minutes. Pushing what he had just seen to the back of his mind, Carl broke into a run, desperately trying to make it to the interview.


	21. Chapter 21

Meredith was about to murder somebody, which she didn't think would look very well on her school record. The time of the end-of-the-school-year exams had come yet again, and as usual Meredith had pushed it to the back of her mind, not worrying at all. After all, had been her reasoning, the exams didn't start for another three weeks, so she would have plenty of time to study before then. Eventually, however the days passed by quicker than Meredith could have ever thought possible, and now her first exam was only two days away.

She had expressed her fears for the exams that morning to her mother, but that had only made matters worse, as her mother told her that it was her own fault that she hadn't studied before now. Yes, I know, Meredith had wanted to say to her, but can we just forget about that now and focus on the fact that I am now overly stressed about these exams? But she had managed to keep her mouth shut, thinking that her mother would say the exact same things to her.

Gee, thanks mom for the moral support, Meredith thought to herself as she got off of the school bus. It was raining hard outside, and- since she had forgotten to bring a coat- Meredith almost immediately got drenched in rainwater.

Just my luck, thought Meredith as she walked towards the school. What is it, the let-the-universe-pick-on-Meredith day? If so, I'd rather not be apart of this, thanks. 

Lost in her thoughts, Meredith didn't even notice the couple kissing in the rain in front of her until she had ran into them full-force.

"Oh, shit!" Meredith exclaimed as she fell backwards onto her butt, her school books flying out of her hands.

"Great, just great." Meredith muttered to herself as she noticed her English notebook open, the papers inside now getting soaked from the rain.

"Hey, are you okay." Someone asked her, to which Meredith wanted to reply, No, I am not okay, can't you see that, and then would proceed to call that person every insult that she could think of.

But instead she said, "No," and to her absolute horror, she could feel her eyes start to tear up on her, which did not make the situation that she was in any better at all.

Suddenly, Meredith could feel herself being lifted up by two strong hands, and suddenly she found herself face to face with a very good-looking black-haired teenage boy that she had never seen before.

"Oh, thanks." She said, feeling herself start to blush, which made her even more angry with herself. Stop it, she told herself, you are a teenager, not some love-struck middle-schooler! 

Meredith heard a noise behind her and saw a blonde-haired girl bending down and picking up the stuff that Meredith had dropped.

The girl walked over to her. "Here." She said, handing the books over to Meredith.

"Oh, um, thanks." Meredith said, moving her wet hair out of her face, and then she almost did a double-take.

Now that she was face to face with the girl, she recognized her as a girl from one of her classes.

"Oh, it's . . . Annabelle. Right?" Meredith said, smiling slightly as she felt the rain start to lighten up.

"Annabeth." The girl said, with only the slightest trace of annoyance flashing across her face. But it went away pretty quickly, so Meredith wasn't exactly for sure if she had actually seen it or not.

"Oh, right." Meredith said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Well, um, I guess I'll see you later then. Bye." Meredith said, and as soon as she did, she walked as quickly as she could away from Annabeth and the good-looking boy, silently praying to whatever God was out there that, please, please, don't let her day be any more worse than it already was.


	22. Chapter 22

Honestly, Seth didn't even know what to think of his new roommate. Then again, Seth had only known the guy for about a week, so maybe it wasn't that surprising that he still didn't know what to think of him.

The one thing that Seth could, however, determine about his new roommate Percy Jackson was that he was strange. And very, very strange at that.

Even though it had only been a week since they first met each other, Seth could name several different instances in which he either questioned the sanity of himself or Percy Jackson.

For instance, just a few days ago, Seth had seen a ballpoint pen laying on Percy's bed, and -without even thinking about what he was doing- picked it up and started twirling it around and around his fingers. About five minutes after he had started messing around with it, Seth had heard a small yelp of surprise from Percy -who had apparently just come back from the store without Seth's noticing- and had quickly snatched the pen away from Seth, leaving him utterly bewildered as Percy started mumble about how the pen was very special to him.

Now, how a pen could have sentimental value, Seth didn't even know. Perhaps it had been down from his family, or maybe it was even a gift from someone- Seth highly doubted this last theory, after all, who in their right mind would give a pen as a gift? Nobody, that was for sure.

Seth hoped that, since he and Percy would have to remain roommates for the remainder of their first year of college, that he would eventually get used to the strangeness of Percy Jackson.

If he was being honest with himself, though, he honestly didn't think he ever would.

Currently, Seth was walking across a street in downtown Manhattan, carrying some items that he had gotten from a store that was almost directly across from the college dorm buildings.

Seth entered his dorm building, and, in what seemed like no time at all, was standing in front of the door to his room.

He was just about to get the keys out of his pocket when he heard something peculiar on the other side of the door. It sounded as though two people were talking. Seth recognized Percy's voice, but he couldn't tell who the other person was.

Although Seth knew it was incredibly rude to be eavesdropping on his roommate, he personally thought of this as the perfect opportunity to learn more about Percy.

"So, things are doing okay at camp?" Seth heard Percy ask whoever he was talking to.

"Yes." A female voice said.

"So nobody has tried to burn it down since I left?" Percy asked.

Seth heard the girl give a small laugh. "No, they haven't. Why? Were you expecting them to?"

"No! I just . . . I didn't know if anything crazy had happened." Percy stammered.

"Don't worry. Nothing really exciting has happened this past week. Which feels weird to say, considering all the excitement we've had over the past few years."

"Well, that's good." Percy said.

There was a small moment of silence until Percy said. "I really miss you, Annabeth."

"You've only been gone a week." The girl, whose name was apparently Annabeth, reminded him.

"I know, but I still miss you." Percy said.

"Well, I'll come and visit you soon, okay? Oh, and watch out for monsters."

"Don't worry I- what was that?"

Seth nearly swore out loud as he lost his grip on one of the bags that he was carrying, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud thump. As quickly as he could, Seth bent over and picked up the bag. When he straightened up, he felt his heartbeat quickened as he heard footsteps approaching him from the other side of the door.

"Oh, um, Hi." Seth said rather awkwardly as the door in front of him opened.

"How long have you been standing there?" Percy asked, glaring at him, which made Seth extremely nervous.

"Oh, um, just a . . . few minutes." Seth said, trying not to think about how awkward the situation that he was in was. After all, what could you say to your roommate that you had been purposefully been eavesdropping on because you didn't really know that much about them and you were kind of weirded out by them?

"So, uh, who's Annabeth." Seth asked, hoping that by starting another conversation Percy would forget about Seth eavesdropping on him.

"My girlfriend." Percy said.

"You have a girlfriend?" Seth asked. He had not know this about his roommate.

"Yeah." Percy said, now smiling with thoughts of his girlfriend. "She's awesome."

"I bet she is." Seth said. "Oh, and by the way, when did you get a cellphone? I thought that you didn't have one."

"Cellphone? I don't have a cellphone." Percy said, confused.

"Then how were you talking to your girlfriend?" Seth asked, now confused as well.

Percy's eyes widened. "Oh, I was. . . um I . . . Uh . . . I have to go to the store." He said suddenly, causing Seth to jump back in surprise from the sudden change in subject.

"What?"

"I have to go to the store and get some . . . uh . . . blue jellybeans!"

"Wh-" Seth started to say, but he felt Percy push past him as he ran out of the room and down the hall, leaving Seth to stare bewildered at him.

Shaking his head slightly, Seth walked into the dorm room and collapsed on top of his bed, not even bothering to put the stuff that he had bought earlier away.

He laid there for a few minutes before muttering to himself, "Well, that was weird."


	23. Chapter 23

Gwen had just finished setting the table up when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in." She called out to the people outside the door.

The door opened, and she heard a voice she recognized to be her brother's ask, "Gwen?"

"I'm in the dining room!" Gwen shouted back to her elder brother.

Smoothing her white with pink polka dots dress down, Gwen looked up and smiled as she saw her brother Paul enter the dining room with his wife Sally, his step-son Percy, and . . . who was she? There was a young blonde that looked to be about Percy's age, standing amongst her brother's family. Gwen wondered who she was, as she had never seen her before.

Paul caught her staring and said, "Oh, this is Percy's girlfriend, Annabeth. Annabeth, this is my sister, Gwendolyn."

"You can call me Gwen." Gwen said, reaching out her hand towards Annabeth, who, to Gwen's relief, shook it.

"I'm so glad that you-all came. Steve and Marcus should be here any minute now- they left to go get some drinks." Gwen said, referring to her husband and son.

Almost as soon as she said that, Gwen heard the door open and only seconds later her husband and son came barreling into the dining room. They quickly set down the several packs of sodas that they carried down onto the table. Gwen cried out as one of the packs slid into a plate, causing it to almost fall off the edge of the table.

"Marcus!" She cried. "Be more carful."

The teenagers cheeks went a little red. "Sorry about that, mom."

"Well, you should be!" Gwen said, still slightly startled by what had almost happened.

"It's okay, hon." Steve said, trying without a doubt to reassure her. "Nobody was hurt, nothing was damaged. So, we're all okay."

"Yes, yes. I suppose so." Gwen said.

"Good." Steve said, clapping his hands together. "Now, let's get down to business and eat."

Very soon, all seven of them were seated around the table, filling up their plates with food. When she had filled hers up, Gwen looked over at Percy, who was sitting a few seats down from her next to his girlfriend.

"So, Percy," she began, "how long exactly have you and Annabeth been dating?"

Percy, who had just take a bite of his food, swallowed, and said, "A little over a year."

Gwen was startled. She had expected for him to say that they had been going out for a few weeks, not an entire year!

"A year?" Steve asked. "Well, why haven't we seen you with her before now, then?"

Percy glanced over at Annabeth briefly before saying, "We were. . . busy, to say the least."

"Busy? With what?" Gwen asked curiously.

"Family things." Annabeth said, speaking for the very first time.

"Oh, okay." Gwen said, not wanting to pry anymore deeply than she already had.

"So, Percy," Steve began, obviously wanting to change the subject. "Did you try out for any sports teams this year at your school."

Percy shrugged, taking another bite of food before saying, "I tried out for the swim team."

"Oh." Steve said, sounding slightly disappointed- Steve's favorite sport was football, and any other sport other than that he considered practically useless. "Did you get in?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, yeah I did."

"That's nice." Steve said, then he reached over to pat Marcus on the shoulder. "Now Marcus here, he tried out for the football team- which he managed to get in, mind you- and I swear to you, ever since he's joined the team, it has been nothing but good."

"Stop it, dad." Marcus said, trying to wiggle out from underneath his father's grip. Yes, Steve, please stop, Gwen thought, silently agreeing with her son.

But Steve was just getting started. "I always knew that he would be a great football player one day." Suddenly, Steve looked over at Percy. "And I bet you would too, as soon as you get your mind off of swimming." Steve said, giving a slight shudder at the last word.

"That is what he likes to do." Annabeth said, glaring at Steve.

"That may be, but I'm sure that he would be an even better football player." Steve said.

"Trust me, I wouldn't be a good football player at all." Percy told Steve.

"Oh, I'm sure with a little training you'll be almost as good as Marcus here!" Steve said, nodding over towards Marcus.

"I'm not that good, dad." Marcus said.

"Nonsense!" Steve said, waving his hand to the side.

"Does anyone want some pie?" Gwen asked, to which all of them looked over at her in surprise.

"I, ah, made some pie for dessert. It's over in the fridge. I was just getting ready to go and get it." Gwen said quietly.

"Some pie would be nice, Gwen." Sally said kindly.

As quickly as she could, Gwen leapt up from the table and went to go and get the pies that she had made. When she got back to the dining room, she saw to her surprise Annabeth now standing up from the table.

Having heard Gwen come into the room, Annabeth said, " I'm really sorry Gwen, but me and Percy have to be going now."

"Go? Why?" Gwen asked, surprised.

"I have a . . .job, that I have to get to. And I cannot be late for it." Annabeth said.

"Can't you just stay for just a little while longer and eat some pie?" Gwen asked, holding the pies out to her.

"Yeah, Annabeth, why can't we stay for a little while and have some pie. They look delicious." Percy said, eyeing the pies almost longingly, which were now sitting down on the table.

"Well, you can stay. I don't even know why I was going to bring you with me, anyway." Annabeth said.

"Because, I'm an extremely lovable person to be around." Percy said, grinning.

"And extremely annoying." Annabeth said, smiling over at her boyfriend. Then she looked down at her wristwatch. "Oh, my! I really must be going. Percy? Are you coming with me?"

"Yeah, I'm coming, just let me get some pie first." Percy said, standing up and walking over to Gwen.

"Percy! You can't eat pie in O- in the place where I work!" Annabeth said.

"Relax." Percy said as Gwen reached him a piece of chocolate pie. "I'll eat it on the way over there."

"You'd better." Annabeth said, then she looked over at Gwen, Steve, and Marcus. "It was nice meeting you-all, really."

Then, with a quick smile at Sally and Paul, Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand and together they walked out of the dining room.

Gwen stared at the place where the two teenagers had left for a few minutes before she came to her senses and sat back down at the table.

"So, who wants pie?" Gwen asked again.


	24. Chapter 24

Of course, Beth didn't mean to run over the attractive guy- it just happened.

One minute, she was hurrying along trying to get to her new-found job without being late when suddenly she felt her car hit something hard.

"What the-" She exclaimed, looking up from her watch and slamming on her brakes, much to the dismay of the drivers behind her.

As quickly as she could, Beth leapt out from her car, looking to see what she had it. Laying down in front of her car was a guy that looked to be about her age with black hair and tan skin.

"Oh, my God!" Beth shouted. "Are you alright?" She asked, then mentally hit herself in the forehead. He was just hit by a car, what do you think? Beth asked herself.

At that moment Beth heard the guy groan slightly and open his eyes. "What just happened?" He asked.

"I, ah, kind of hit you with my car." Beth said, bending over to help him up, but stopped herself. "I don't think that I should touch you." She said.

"What? Why not?" The guy asked, staring at her in surprise.

"Well, I don't know how badly you are hurt and- oh, my God what am I saying? I should be calling an ambulance not talking to you!" Beth said, immediately hurrying over to her car door to get her cell phone.

Before she could do so, however, she felt somebody grab her shoulder. Beth turned around to see who had grabbed her and to her surprise saw the guy that she had run over just minutes before standing directly behind her.

"But I'm not hurt. See?" The guy said, gesturing at himself.

"But, I just . . . ran over you! You should be dead or extremely injured!" Beth shouted, her mouth slightly open in shock.

For a moment the guy looked slightly dumbfounded, as if wondering what to say to that outburst of hers. Before he could open his mouth, however, Beth heard a new voice.

"Percy? What are you doing?" A blonde girl asked, running towards them.

"Um, hi." Beth said awkwardly.

The girl ignored her and instead turned towards Percy. "Percy, what happened here?"

"I might have ran him over with my car." Beth said, answering the girl's question.

The girl turned towards her. "Might of?" She asked, her eyebrow raised ever so slightly.

"Okay. I did." Beth said, shrinking back. "But I was just about to call an ambulance!" She added.

The girl smiled at her. "Oh, there's no need for that. He's perfectly fine." The girl reassured her.

Beth looked at the girl, her eyes wide. "How many times do I have to tell you people? I just ran over him! He should be on his way to the hospital right now!"

"I will make sure that he is okay, but I can assure you that he has no need for a hospital." The girl told Beth.

"Hey, um, you guys know I'm still here, right?" Percy asked, looking between the girl and Beth.

"What? Yes, yes of course we know your still there. And what do you mean he has no need for a hospital?" Beth said.

The girl sighed and turned towards Percy. "Percy, are you hurt anywhere?" She asked him.

The guy shook his head. "No, Annabeth, I'm not."

Annabeth nodded, clearly satisfied with that answer. "See? He's perfectly okay." Annabeth said, turning back towards Beth.

"But, I - oh, forget it." Beth exclaimed, opening her car door and climbing inside.

"No hospital! What are they thinking?" Beth asked herself as she drove away from Percy and Annabeth.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I kept meaning to post the rest of the chapters to this fic but I kept forgetting to. so errr, sorry about that.

 

 

"I'm hungry." Logan said, looking over at his girlfriend Chloe on the opposite end of the couch.

Chloe looked at him in confusion. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" She asked him, slightly raising her eyebrows.

Logan shifted awkwardly. "I don't know . . . don't you know how to cook?"

Chloe gave a small laugh. "Not very well."

"Well, I'm sure you could fix something." Logan said, almost begging now.

Chloe laughed again. "The last time I tried to cook something I almost burnt my house down."

Logan stared at her, eyes wide. "You're _joking!_ "

Chloe tilted her head slightly. "Well, I could be . . . but the scorch marks in my kitchen say otherwise."

"So, you aren't going to fix anything to eat." Logan asked her.

Chloe threw her hands up into the air. "For God's sake is food _all_ you think about?"

"Well, as of right now . . . yes, it is." Logan said.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You are unbelievable."

Logan groaned quite dramatically as he turned to face his friend Percy, who was staring absentmindedly out the window. "Hey, Percy, what are you doing over there?"

"I'm watching for my girlfriend- she's supposed to be coming over any minute now so we can go on our date." Percy said, not taking his eyes off of the window.

"Hey, whoa whoa whoa . Since when do you have a _girlfriend?"_ Logan asked, eyes wide.

Percy shrugged. "Since about two months ago."

Logan's mouth fell open in shock. "You've had a girlfriend for two months and you didn't even bother to tell us?"

"I didn't think it was that important to be honest." Percy said, turning away from the window.

Logan shook his head in disbelief. "Not important? How could it not be important?"

"I don't know. She just never came up, okay?"

"Well?" Chloe asked.

"Well, what?" Percy asked.

"What's her name?"

"Oh, Annabeth." Percy said, now smiling a little at the thought of his girlfriend.

"Annabeth? Well, that's a pretty-" Chloe started to say, but was interrupted by a scream of terror.

"What the-?" Logan shouted as he jumped up from the couch in surprise.

"Annabeth?!" Percy yelled as an expression of worry and fear crossed his face. Quickly, he ran out of the living room and towards the front door, Logan and Chloe following him to see what was going on.

Percy wrenched the door open, and Logan could see a pretty blonde girl standing against the wall.

"Annabeth?" He asked. "What is it?"

Annabeth pointed towards the door. "There was a spider on the door knob."

Percy smiled, looking relieved. "Do you want me to kill it?"

Annabeth shrugged. "It's probably crawled away by now, but if you do see it I wouldn't be opposed to you killing it."

Percy laughed and stepped out into the hallway, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. He started to lean down to kiss her but all of a sudden he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Percy looked up and saw Logan and Chloe still standing in the doorway. "Oh! Annabeth, these are my friends Logan and Chloe. Logan and Chloe, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth."

Logan nodded his head. "Ah . . . so _this_ is the girlfriend that you told us about all of five minutes ago."

Annabeth smirked. "Percy just told you two about me?"

"Yep." Chloe said.

"I can't say that I'm very surprised- he does have a reputation for being somewhat forgetful at times." Annabeth said, smiling at Percy.

"I'm not that forgetful! I just . . . never mentioned you." Percy said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Whatever you say, Percy." Annabeth said, then looked over at Logan and Chloe. "Well, it was very nice meeting you."

"Your leaving?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah . . . for our date, remember?" Percy said.

"Oh, right. Well, what are you waiting for? Go out on your date and have some fun." Logan said, gesturing for them to leave.

"Don't worry. We will." Percy said as he and Annabeth walked away.

"We'd better leave too." Chloe said after Percy and Annabeth had disappeared around the corner.

"Why?"

"Well, we don't really have anymore reasons for staying here now do we?"

"I suppose not but . . ." Logan said, trailing off at the end.

"But, what." Chloe asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"I'm still hungry."

"Of course you are. We can drive around McDonalds so you can get you something to eat, okay?" Chloe said, beginning to walk away.

"Okay." Logan said, closing the apartment door behind him as he followed his girlfriend.


	26. Chapter 26

 

 

 

                            Terence was annoyed. Very annoyed. He was currently sitting in a library, trying to finish up his history report that was due in a week's time. Pouring over book after book, he searched for anything that could help him with the topic, " _Describe the Renaissance Period and its Effects on Today's World."_ Of course, Terence could have used the Internet, which he was sure that many - and possibly all - of his classmates were going to do, but personally, Terence really didn't trust the Internet and its so-called resources. So excuse him if he preferred doing things the old-fashioned way.

 

However, Terence had barely even managed to get anything on his report done, which he personally blamed on the two teenagers sitting a table away from him. One was a pretty blonde girl who was reading a large, thick book. Another was a dark-haired teenage boy, who was leaning back in his chair, occasionally whistling and tapping a ballpoint pen on the table.

Of course, usually the sounds being made by the guy wouldn't have bothered Terence. But seeing that he was in a library where the loudest sounds were the turning of pages and the occasional whispering by the other people in the building, the sounds that the guy was making seemed to Terence to be some of the loudest sounds that he had ever heard.

Terence had expected that a librarian would come and politely ask the guy to leave or to be quiet, but none had ever come. and he was getting more and more annoyed with every second that passed.

_For God's sake just kick him out already!_ Terence thought to himself as the guy whistled yet again.

Terence looked back towards his enormous pile of books and sighed. There was no way that he was going to get anything done while the guy kept distracting him from his work, and didn't look like anyone would be arriving soon to put an end to the guy's constant whistling and pen-tapping. So, to Terence it looked as though he were on his own.

Terence got up from his table and walked over to where the guy and girl were sitting. "Hey, um," Terence began hesitantly. Maybe this was a mistake. "I'm really sorry for bothering you, but, you see, I have some homework that I have to do by next Friday and I just can't concentrate with you making all that racket. So, - and I'm sorry for putting it this way - but would you please shut up so I can do my work."

The blonde girl looked up from the book that she was reading. "Oh, don't worry, we were just leaving. Weren't we, Percy?"

"What? Oh, yeah, we were just about to leave." Percy said, setting his chair down with a loud thud.

Terence breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, that's good."

"Hey," Percy said, standing up. "I'm sorry that we were bothering you."

"You." The girl pointed out as she closed the book that she had been reading.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Fine, Annabeth. I'm sorry that _I_ was bothering you."

"Well, um," Terence said, clapping his hands together and backing away from them. "I'll just be, uh, going now, if that's alright with you."

"Okay." Percy and Annabeth said simultaneously, which Terence thought was a little creepy. Terence smiled as he sat back down in his chair and pulled his stack of books to him.

"Now, let's get down to business." Terence said to himself as he took the top book off of the pile and opened it on the table. To his dismay, however, he began to hear the sound of an infant crying somewhere near by.

"Oh, for the love of God!" He cried, letting his head fall down hard on the book in front of him. It was beginning to look as if he was _never_ going to finish this assignment.


	27. Chapter 27

One second, Matt was trying desperately to get back up to the surface of the ocean, the next second he opened his eyes to discover he was being kissed by a guy. At least, that's what it looked like to him.

The guy pulled away and started to press his hands into Matt's chest, who was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. He opened his mouth to ask the guy what in the world he was doing, but before he could do so a fountain of water poured out of his mouth. Matt coughed and sputtered as the water kept coming, barely noticing that the guy next to him had turned his head over so that he wouldn't choke on the water.

"Wh- What happened?" Matt asked as soon as the water had stopped and he was able to catch his breath.

"Is he okay?" Someone asked, and Matt saw to his embarrassment that there was a crowd of about twenty to thirty people watching him. A few of them even had video cameras with them, which succeeded in making Matt feeling even more embarrassed than he already was.

"Yeah, I think so." The guy next to him said.

Matt turned his head to see a guy with black hair and a very pretty girl with blonde hair kneeling down beside of him. Matt groaned as he pulled himself up off of the ground. To his dismay he saw that the group of people around him were _still_ staring at him. "What are you looking at? Show's over." He said angrily. Luckily, most of them left after that, with only a few staying behind to film a few more seconds on their cameras, but they too eventually left, albeit after Matt gave them all his own personal death glare.

Matt turned his gaze towards the two people who were still sitting beside of him. "What are you still doing here?" He questioned, wanting nothing more than to go someplace where he could forget all about this embarrassing incident.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were going to be alright." The guy said.

"of course I'm fine." Matt said, shivering slightly.

"Here." The blonde girl said, draping a beach towel over him.

"Oh, uh, thanks, um . . ." Matt said, trailing off at the end.

"Annabeth, and this is my boyfriend, Percy." The girl said, gesturing to her and her boyfriend

'Percy?" Matt said, sure he had heard the name somewhere before. "As in?"

"Percy Jackson, why." Percy said, cocking his head.

Matt blinked at him, trying to comprehend what Percy had just said. He hoped that this wasn't the same Percy Jackson that he had went to school with back in seventh grade. If it was, then it definitely wouldn't make this experience any better. "Oh, no reason, just curious." Matt said, deciding that he was personally would be better off not knowing if this Percy Jackson was the same Percy Jackson that he once knew.

" . . . Okay, then." Percy said, looking at Matt confused. For a short moment Matt was afraid that Percy- that is if it was the same Percy that he had once known- had recognized him, but he just shook his head and walked away.

Matt sighed as he shook the beach towel off of his shoulders and walked away, desperately trying to think about anything other than what had just happened.


	28. Chapter 28

 

  Maya walked across the greenery of Central Park, silently fuming to herself. Her boyfriend had just broken up with her the day before, and now she was angry at herself for crying over him yesterday. She didn't even know why she had been so upset yesterday- it wasn't like their relationship had been all butterflies and rainbows. Maybe it was because since it was truly over, Maya knew that all of her hopes and dreams of fixing the relationship between her and her boyfriend were smashed to smithereens. Maybe it was because she felt that she had done something wrong that caused their relationship to crumble. Whatever the reason for Maya being upset the day before, she was determined to get over it.

Maya stopped walking for exactly one minute to tie her shoe, which was a terrible mistake, as the next thing she knew she was being crushed into the ground by something that appeared to have materialized completely out of thin air.

"Oh, my Gods!" Someone shouted above her as Maya felt her head being pushed deeper into the ground. "I'm so sorry." The voice said, and to Maya's relief she felt the weight on top of her leave.

Maya groaned as she struggled to stand up. Thankfully, she didn't appear to be that badly hurt, just a few bumps and bruises really.

"Are you all right?" The person who had presumably fell on her asked.

"Yeah, yeah." Maya said absent-mindedly as she finally managed to pull herself up into a sitting position.

"Percy? What's going on?" Maya looked up to see a girl walking towards them, carrying two ice cream cones that were quickly melting in the summer heat.

"Well, I was climbing that tree over there and I kind of . . . sort of fell on top of her." Percy said, pointing at Maya, who held one hand up in greeting.

The girl gave a small laugh and shook her head, handing over one of the ice cream cones to Percy as she did so. "Here." She said, holding out a hand towards Maya, which she gladly took. "Thanks." She said, almost smiling with gratitude.

The girl smiled at her. "Your welcome."

"Hey, uh, I really am sorry about . . . you know." Percy said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Falling on me, crushing me into the ground, et cetera, et cetera." Maya said.

"Yeah, that." Percy said. "Well, uh, I really am sorry about that."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I was already having a really bad day already - it's not like you could have made any worse than it already was." Maya said, throwing her hands up into the air.

"Well, I hope your day gets better." Percy said, smiling sympathetically at her, which Maya personally hated, since right now she didn't want to think that anybody felt sorry for her.

Maya shrugged. "Maybe it will , Maybe it won't. But, hey, that's how this messed up thing we call life works- sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't." Maya said, thinking that sounded far better in her head where she felt it should have stayed.

To her amazement, however, she saw Percy nodding his head in agreement. "Yeah. Well, see you later." Percy said, then added, "Maybe."

Maya held her hand up in farewell. "Bye." She said before she quickly walked away and consequently ran into a tree. Maya looked back towards Percy and the girl. "I meant to do that. Bye!" She said as she started to run away, all the while making sure she didn't have any more unwanted encounters with the various trees surrounding her.


End file.
